Mom's Losing It!!

When we finally reach the end of our homeschool days and our seventh child graduates from high school (who, given her current level of energy and the width of her damage path, is obviously geared toward either catastrophic world domination or the colonization of Mars), I wil have been at this for a grand total of thirty years. THIRTY. I am tired just thinking about that number. My mother retired from teaching in the public school system with just a couple more years than that. I'm thinking that's quite enough, thanks much. I'll go volunteer at a funeral home after that, where it's quiet and my charges don't talk back.

Yes, today was one of  **those** days. How could you tell? You know, when I have my homeschool retirement party the week after that last graduation, I already know what the theme will be. Let's recap today's highlights and see if you can guess. 

Child: "Mom, I don't get this."

Mom: "What are the directions asking you to do?

Child: "I don't know."

Mom: "Read the directions to me."

[Child reads directions clearly]

Mom: "Now what do you need to do?

Child: "I dunno."

Mom: "What did the directions say?"

[Child repeats directions]

Mom: "So what do you need to do?"

Child: "I dunno."

[Mom explains directions slowly and in English, pointing to dictionary to reference any ill-understood words, then looks into child's eyes for some signs of life.]

Mom: "Doooooooooo thhiiiiiiiisssss."

Child: "But I don't get it."

Mom: "Read the directions."

Child: "I did."

Mom: "So what are you supposed to do?"

[Child explains assignment with precision regurgitation of mom's instructions.]

Mom: "Great! So do that."

Child: "Do what?"

Have you guessed the theme? This has now happened with three of my seven children. It never gets less exasperating. It has become the padding in my cell. So it's only fitting that the theme of my homeschool momy retirement party be ...

"Who's On First?"

I just don't know how you do it!

DISCLAIMER--if you can't take a joke or if you are easily offended by people whose life choices are different than yours, you may want to find another blog to read. I'm a conservative (but not legalistic), Christian, homeschooling mother of seven children who would have gladly have had more if my body had not gone into full mutiny. It is obvious that I am different. I don't care. And guess what? It doesn't offend me that YOU may be different, or that you might find my decisions insane, ridiculous, whatever. I just don't care; I'm too busy living my life to tell you how you've got to live yours. You're entitled to your opinion, as am I. If you're okay with that, and you're okay with hearing the "other" side of the story, then by all means, read on! If not, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

"I just don't know how you do it."

I honestly do not know how many times a year/month/week I hear this statement. The minute people start counting all these little blonde heads (even though right now there are--don't laugh-- *only* five), the questions about how I "do it all" come up. Inevitably, the question of school will come up once or twice a week, with a variety of responses. About half the time, I get a wonderfully supportive, "I think that's great!", but just as often, I am befuddled with how to respond when someone starts rattling off their own reasons for why they *can't* homeschool. I don't ever recall asking why ANYONE doesn't homeschool. Ever. People just feel the need to justify their reasons, I suppose. I'm not so sure I understand that response, but considering I'm in a particularly snarky mood today, I'm going to join in on the argument and tell some of "you people" (remember what I said about getting offended? Keep that in mind.) who send your kids to public or private schools  why it is I just don't understand "how you do it".

1. I'm a major control freak. This is probably THE biggest reason I had issues with having our oldest two in a public school setting. I wasn't in control--of the curriculum, of their time, of their influences, their clothing, their school supplies, not even of their lunches. It was ridiculous, and I felt like I was handing the job of parenting my children over to a total stranger for six hours a day. When that kindergarten teacher told me that I had to tell my 5-year-old to stop reading because it was making the other kids [who couldn't read yet] feel bad about themselves, I lost it. The control monster in me took over. When we put them back in a public high school for just one semester, I felt like I'd had all of my maternal control ripped away. I do not do well with that. I am the one who will answer for how my children have been influenced, and because of that, I'm going to run with this control-freak nature God made me with and BE in control of those things I have every right to control.
2. Public schools start too early in the morning for me. Petty, I know, but ask my mom--I have been a night owl ALL of my life. I came by it honestly--she is the same way. My brain clicks into full gear at about 10pm, and doesn't settle in for the night until about 1 or 2am. This does not make for an easy transition into early mornings. I hear all the time about how to make the morning rush easier, how to get the kids up and out of the house without a struggle; my kids aren't the problem. I'm the one who would not hear the alarm at 6am, and by 7:30 we'd all be scrambling probably three or four days a week, just to get UP and out the door. Thankfully, homeschooling allows me the freedom to "do school" on my brain's schedule, not the one determined by the local administration. This is yet another one where I have to say, "I do NOT know how you do it."
3. I'm selfish, and I want to be the one seeing all their 'light bulb" moments. I love watching my children learn. I love seeing the fascination in their eyes as they soak up information and I simply cannot fathom sharing that look of accomplishment that they get upon mastering a new skill. I just can't. I'm their mother. I want to be the one with them as they learn to read. I want to be the one cheering them on to apply that new division skill. 
4. I ENJOY being with my children. It perplexes me to be confronted by parents who seemingly cannot stand being around their own offspring. Goodness, folks--if YOU don't like 'em, do you really think a complete stranger is going to be thrilled to have to spend all day with them!? No, I'm not the type of person who makes an idol of my progeny; I rather enjoy having that elusive quiet time to myself and a date every so often with the man I married, but I have to tell you--I find it rather strange to hear a mother say she cannot wait to get away from her children. It seems very counter-intuitive to me. I happen to like mine. Even the little tornado whose damage path leaves me pulling my hair out several times a week. My life would be completely different if they weren't an all-day, every-day fixture in my life, and I dare say I wouldn't enjoy it as much.
5. I don't like summer vacation. It's hot, and I don't like hot. Everywhere you can go is crowded, and I don't like crowds. I would much rather spend my summer inside, in the comfort of my air conditioned house, sipping sweet tea with reckless abandon. I like to take our time "off" when everyone else is in school--during the cool days of fall and spring, when being outside is gloriously refreshing and the crowds are sparse. I'm weird that way. Of course, I also detest Black Friday, which has on more than one occasion been used to support the idea that I'm more than a little bit goofy in this respect. Point is, I don't like being told when to take my vacations. If my husband is off work, ALL of us are off. When it's less crowded and cooler, we take our vacations and enjoy being somewhat removed from the craziness.
6. There is no way I have the patience for institutionalized education. This one goes WAY back. I do not like being told I have to stop what I'm doing and wait for the rest of the class to catch up. I spent many a day in elementary school bored out of my skull, and I don't want that for my children. If they want to work ahead, I let them. Oh--and the other thing about waiting--I do NOT do well in lines. Waiting for the first bell, waiting around in the bus lane, I just get very restless. I don't like waiting 9 weeks for a progress report or report card to know if one of my children is having trouble in any particular subject. I don't like waiting. If there's a problem, I want to know now so I can work on it. Maybe y'all had better luck, but the only time during our three years of experience in the public school system, I had virtually zero communication with my children's teachers unless it was time for a progress report or report card.
7. Excused absences. I loathe them. The idea that a child who has not seen his or her father for six months would have to miss a day's assignments and potentially risk their grades because Dad is being welcomed home from a deployment is not just unfathomable, it's INEXCUSABLE. Oh, and in case you are wondering, this actually happened to several of our friends the days their dads came home from a deployment to Saudi Arabia/Kuwait. In fact, my children were two of the very few school-age children who were present when those buses pulled up because it was during school hours, and the school didn't allow them an excused absence. I find it ridiculous that a parent has to justify an absence with a doctor's note. Who do these children belong to, anyway? Shoot, if we need a mental health day, we're taking one!
8. Textbooks give me the creeps. It's like Bac-O's. I don't serve my kids fake bacon, and I'm not keen on the idea of them getting watered-down, purified, politicized, and politically-corrected lessons. 
9. Buses. I've ridden them. My older  two children have had experience with them. They're horrible. Everything about them is horrible. Again, petty? Maybe. But these are MY complaints, remember? My turn.
10. I do not EVER want my children to be targeted by bullies just because they love to learn. I want to be by their sides as they mature, showing them how to handle situations and circumstances they do not understand or that make them uncomfortable. I do not want them to ever feel as if they are alone in this big world. Go ahead, tell me I'm sheltering them. I assure you, I'm doing little more for them than I would my baby cucumber plants, which I lovingly "train" up a trellis so they can spread their leaves and have something to grab onto for support when wind or harsh rain threatens.
11. This may be the most maddening of all of my reasons, but I guarantee you, it is behind every single excuse I hear listed by those who "can't" homeschool for any of a hundred reasons. The reason? I DON'T WANT TO. There. I said it. Is there something "wrong" with not wanting to send my kids to public school? Only if there's something "wrong" with not wanting to homeschool.

Home education is not for everyone. Having children is not for everyone. Marriage is not for everyone. College is not for everyone. Owning a home isn't for everyone. Cats aren't for everyone. Gardening isn't for everyone. And that's okay, because NONE of these things is an issue that will threaten our salvation in and of itself. I have convictions that some others of you do not have. Some of you have convictions that I do not share. That's okay too, as long as those convictions aren't formed on opinions that violate the Word of God. But ya know what, public/private school parents? I just don't know how you do it! :)

The Crash and Burn

I am not going to theorize as to why I know of so many brand-new homeschoolers this year, because theorizing always gets me into trouble. I will just say this: I know of more people who have made the decision to homeschool in the last twelve months than I have in the last twelve years. It is truly staggering, and thrilling all at the same time. Parents are taking back their rightful places as authority in their children's education, and that is a wonderful thing!

Ironically, I can see in these parents the same fears and concerns (as well as the excitement!) that I had all those years ago when we made the leap out of the public school system. I thought I had a pretty good support system, with a pen pal who was writing to me via snail-mail to encourage me. The only other homeschool family I met in "real life" back when we had just a kindergartner and third grader was one that REALLY shocked us--they were also the only family we had EVER met with seven children. That just seemed HUGE to me back then, and seeing their bookshelves just chock full of all of those beautifully arranged, crisp "designer" textbooks from one of the big-names in home education was just completely overwhelming. Oh, if I could only have seen a crystal ball and caught a glimpse of my future ... HAHAHAA!!!! Anyway, my point is just that I had what I *thought* at the time was good support. I have to try my best not to envy some of these new homeschoolers, with their ability to have a huge support base at their fingertips on the internet at a moment's notice, and to Google any and everything. OH to have all those resources ... I don't think I would have had near the issues we had those first two three six ten years.

Or would I?

Yeah, come to think of it, I probably would have. Because it's my nature to want to overstress anything and everything and go big. I wanted to make sure that my new homeschool recruits had only the best--the whole "school" experience PLUS the fun of doing all their work in their jammies. And I would have done exactly what I am seeing a lot of these new homeschool moms doing right now--just exactly what I did all those years ago--cried, wrung my hands, pulled out my hair, fought with them over what needed to get done, stressed over attendance, hours, days, whether the curriculum was right, whether I was dooming them to a life of failure and maybe even life in prison?

That was me. Fourteen years ago, I crashed and burned. Just like all these newbie moms who are doing exactly what I did. I shudder to think back to how long it really took me to "get it", to realize that what I was trying to do was duplicate something I had no possibility of duplicating. See, a classroom is a group of people, set up in a certain way, with a certain purpose, and a certain method to achieve that purpose. Learning in a classroom setting HAS to look different than learning in a home setting, because they ARE different. But yet there I was, taking my two children from that classroom setting, moving them into our dining room full of bookshelves and a desk (and the cutest little antique German hutch for school supplies that I could find ... I was so proud of that thing!), handing them textbooks and expecting a "homeschool" experience from recreating a classroom setting. Umm .... Have you ever attempted to make lasagna with spaghetti noodles? I'm sure it *can* be done, but you sure do have to do a lot of extra work to get to that point.

I'm going to pass on a little tidbit of advice to those new homeschool moms who are experiencing the crash and burn of those first few months (or even a year or two!):
DON'T DO WHAT I DID!!!
Do you know what our "school" looks like now, now that the two public-school-yankout children have graduated and all of our "knowledge" of public school has disappeared from our home? I have three students right now who are absolutely enamored with learning of all sorts. They soak up information like sponges. They LOVE to read. They even "love" to do their math! Why?

I don't force anything anymore. Not. A. Thing. Seriously. It's not a battle between mom and the "class". It's not a showdown; there isn't a constant volley of "I don't know how to do this." "Did you read the directions?" "No. It won't help. I just don't know how to do it." "Once you read the directions, if you don't understand, I'll help you, but I want you to READ." "I can't read." ............... [long, pained silence as Mom attempts to avoid the "osmosis" method of learning]

So how did I get there? Bait and hook. And I really wish I had done it YEARS ago. In fact, I'll tell you exactly what I wish I had done back in September of 1998 when we began this journey.

If I had it to do over again, I would have ditched the "need" to invest more than we had available to us in "the best" homeschool curriculum (that ended up driving us all crazy before we'd even gotten a semester into it) and spent the ENTIRE first year doing three things--working on our relationships (that were remarkably fractured by some very damaging stuff they'd encountered at school) and regaining my (and my husband's) rightful place as their God-given authority INSTEAD of touting the whole home education gig as being "fun"; I would have found a basic math course to keep them working on math at grade level but not trying to work them up into the intense homeschool curricula that prides itself as being two grade levels ahead; I would have spent at least two hours a day reading TO them from real, engaging books instead of staggering along in literature and history textbooks, and then doing copywork from those books. I know now that this is sometimes referred to as "deschooling" (Dianne Brooks wrote the article I found on the subject about five years too late); getting the child out of the classroom mindset and allowing their mind time to reboot to a different operating system, so to speak.

My son had a VERY difficult second-grade year in public school. In one school, he was labeled as the problem child who couldn't sit still during music class and was kept off of the honor roll after making straight A's because his conduct grades were poor (the boy could NOT sit still). We moved halfway through that school year, and his new teacher decided that he had a brilliant mind, so he needed to be doing creative writing. Daily. It frustrated him to the point of tears. Daily. He had NOTHING to write about, and because he is a perfectionist by nature, if he couldn't do it to his own liking, he wouldn't do it at all. He was the one I had the toughest time with when we started homeschooling. We'd have good days, but they were few and far between. Most days, he fought me on EVERY turn.

Had I the opportunity to do it over again, I think I would have really benefited from the bait-and-hook technique I use now, but maybe I'd even be more drastic. I think with him I would have told him that he *could* do whatever he wished to do but that his math and any other seatwork *would* be done by dinnertime ... or else he would not eat. And that he would also be in the room (doing whatever it is he wanted to do) while I was reading to and working with his sister. He WOULD learn, but totally on his terms. Submit to Mom's authority, but learn at your own pace. See, here's where I learned something over the years. Learning doesn't have to be in the form of "Here, read this, then answer the questions at the end of the chapter". In fact, in some children--all of mine, in fact, learning does NOT happen that way. I think that was Jon's problem; I was trying to force-feed him something that HE needed to drink with a straw. I think what I do with my girls now would have worked very well with my son.

Several years ago, I found Sonlight and realized that it was my "dream come true". I wanted my children to love literature like I do, and Sonlight had all the good stuff, plus it had lesson plans already figured out for me--including science experiments! All I had to do was open the Instructor Guide and go. And that's what I do. I require all of the girls to be in the room when I'm reading to them, but I don't "require" them to be sitting in front of me, listening intently. I have one child who has to color. Another has to sit and see EVERY picture and stroke my arm while I read. And yet another who refuses to be part of anything I do. Ironically, it's the renegade who soaks up the most information. What I found out was that even though she doesn't want me to know about it, what I'm reading peaks her interest, and she goes back after I'm finished with the others, and spends her OWN time sitting and studying the books now that she already knows what I read. She is my most voracious reader, but not because I've forced it; quite the opposite--I've actually not even required her to be actively involved--but just sitting and listening in the background she can pick up a LOT. We talk about what I've read, and oftentimes even though she's "not listening", she can give me more information than any of the other girls.

The "rule" around here is no TV during public school hours (which they think end at 3 when the bus pulls up to our neighbor's house); but that unless I am reading to them or helping them with their math or other "grade level" work, they are free to do whatever they want, as long as it doesn't involve something electronic. You would be SHOCKED at what that means for them on most days. I have found them playing with math manipulatives, reading to their younger sisters, counting money, collecting bugs, writing letters or making cards for anyone and everyone they know, categorizing rocks, even "playing school". Is this "unschooling"? Well, maybe it is, I don't know. All I know is that my girls are known for being pretty smart cookies, so they must be learning something, right? These girls are in second grade and kindergarten; the time will come when they will need more focused studies. I have grand plans of using some very in-depth studies once they get to middle school and high school that will both fill their minds with that knowledge they crave AND train them to think and reason as educated people. But right now, I want them to LOVE learning. And that they do. They just don't know what "school" looks like. And right now, I'm okay with that.

**Edited for the Homeschooling Fridays link-up!

Labor Day field trip!

Try as I might, in fourteen years of homeschooling I have not been able to get a "head start" on our school year. We have never ONCE managed to start before Labor Day, no matter how well-planned I was. Something has always come up to derail our plans. This year was no different. We actually started school on the 1st of August ... and then the septic tank backed up, I had a shoulder "glitch", a wedding, a pretty seriously ill oldest daughter ... well OKAY then. I can take a hint. I guess it's not so bad to plan for a summer vacation--I certainly hope to be doing a lot of garden-harvesting and canning next summer anyway, so why not just run with it!?

You're probably going to find this little detail ridiculously silly and petty, but my biggest beef with beginning the week of Labor Day is that "lost" school day on Monday when we always spend the day with Pete since he's off from work. I detest having four-day weeks. It looks funny on my calendar, and totally messes up my even by-fives plan. Dumb, I know. I'm a little OCD that way. So this year I **FINALLY** got my head screwed on straight and fixed that problem. How? FIELD TRIP!!!! The girls love it! Field trip with Daddy, counted as a school day, and Mom can be completely okay with checking that little block on the attendance chart!

So where'd we go? Not far, actually! The US Space & Rocket Center here in Huntsville was having its last day with "Sue the T-Rex", so we decided to brave the torrential rain that Tropical Storm Lee was dumping all over the Southeast and go see the dinosaur display! It has been a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time since our family visited the Space & Rocket Center. In fact, last time we were there, we only had two children! We did find out that an obscure little momento we received as a "thank you for your service" back in 1993 is a real, actual, valid lifetime membership card (!!!!!) so we will be able to make many, many trips to see the displays and enjoy the wealth of information and history available to us right here in town! This trip was just a whetting of our appetites! Um ... and a literal "wetting", as  you can well see. We got DRENCHED!

Once inside, though, we very quickly found the dino-display! I have been to the Natural History Museum in the Smithsonian ages and ages ago (I think the dinosaurs might have been a relatively NEW display, it was that long ago! LOL), but I don't remember seeing any full skeletons. Certainly not a tyrannosaurus! For our Jurassic Park-fan family, this was just TOO COOL!!!! Somehow I envisioned T-Rex being a little bigger, but it was still pretty impressive to stand next to a complete skeleton!

 Kasey was absolutely fascinated with that big lizard!!!!

 The full skeleton was too far away to touch, but they did have a skull casting that the girls could touch, along with a couple of teeth. I do NOT think I would like to have been this close to one if she had skin on.

 Digging for fossils!

 Space Cadets! I think the girls are really going to enjoy going back and having many, many opportunities to explore all that there is to be learned about space exploration. You know what's a bit sad to me? The era of shuttle launches and children wanting to grow up to be astronauts has ended--at least a large part of it. It's actually history now. Wow.

 One of the hands-on "training" areas, where the children can climb up a "Mars cliff".

 What do you MEAN I'm five pounds too light to do this? Well that just stinks!!!

 Morgan made it 3/4 of the way up to the top and then it just got to be a little too scary for her!

Aside from the 30-minute-long 3D movie that ended up being nothing more than evolutionist propaganda, the we all had a really good time. However, since we are studying ancient history this year (including dinosaurs!), we will have plenty to talk about as we dive headlong into our studies. This was a fun way to re-start our school year! I think we'll make a tradition out of it!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week… I am realizing that God is teaching me a thing or two about the futility of my plans. We *should be* three weeks into our school year. Instead, I'm just trying desperately to cling to the realization that yes, we *will* finish. On time.

In our homeschool this week… two of my three students (and their teacher) are sick, and the two littles' noses are running as fast as they are. It is not a pleasant sight. I decided to go ahead and quit dreaming about the way I'd like for things to be organized if I can ever get us 'caught up' on the schedule I set for us to attempt to follow this year (haha ... year round, huh?) and just DO what my brain has been contemplating. Our schoolroom is no longer in the back of the house, secluded in the dark cave I painted yellow in an attempt to re-energize the gloomy space. I am slowly and painstakingly getting things arranged in the bonus room, adjacent to Pete's "office" space and taking FULL advantage of the wide-open space, bright natural light, and proximity to the copier! Bookshelves are in place, table is in place, crayons are in place. The rest ... is a work in process. I revamped our school schedule to do what I have done since I started this journey 14 years ago--we are beginning (again) with a grand re-start ON Labor Day. I don't know why I ever changed it. 

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… BE FLEXIBLE!!! Do what works for YOUR family, not what everyone else's "successful" family does. No one else lives in your world. No one else knows your family's eccentricities. Don't fight it; embrace it!

I am inspired by… beautiful learning spaces I have come across on the internet both on Pinterest and via the Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop. I want my girls to be proud of their schoolroom, and I want it to be a space we can all be comfortable in!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… The only trip outside the house we've made this week was to the eye doctor today. We came home with a prescription for glasses for 7yo Morgan. I'm not loving the idea that her vision isn't perfect, but glad nevertheless that she doesn't have the eye issues I had growing up. A little astigmatism and a cool fashion accessory are simple to deal with!

My favorite thing this week was… hanging a new "children's" map up in the schoolroom and beginning to see how the new setup will come together to work for all of us.

What’s working/not working for us… keeping manipulatives with in reach of the tiny tornado who loves to dump everything on the floor and RUN. Must. Utilize. Overhead. Storage!

Questions/thoughts I have… I'm wondering how getting her new glasses next weekend will affect Morgan's schoolwork. Time will tell how much of an impact it had on her handwriting and reading in the past, but it looks to be far worse than we originally thought!

Things I’m working on… mainly getting the schoolroom in order, but I am also in the beginning stages of tackling my Christmas sewing projects. Neither is simple, but hopefully both will be beautiful and well-received! They will certainly be made with love, that's for sure!

I’m reading… Welcome Home by Emilie Barnes, gaining inspiration for making my "nest" more homey and comfortable for all of us and our guests.

I’m cooking… roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus for dinner. Letting the oven do the hard work!

I’m grateful for… the luxury of having fresh starts!

I’m praying for… a friend who lost her job, and a friend's friend who lost his wife and the mother of his seven children today. My problems are puny.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share… our new, even-more-extended family (minus our son-in-law, who will be "home" for two weeks next month!).

It's that time of year again!

Yep! Back to school! On Monday, we began our fourteenth year of homeschooling. That is almost unreal when I think about it. Fourteen years is a LONG time! All those years ago, I only intended to have Jon and Kelsey at home for the duration of our tour in Germany. We enrolled them in public school when we returned to the US, but that ended up being more of a disaster than the disaster we removed them from in the first place. It lasted three months. Their only other time in public school was that horrific semester in the public high school in Germany the second time we were stationed there. It was that nightmare that cemented my convictions and I have absolutely no intention of ever considering public schooling again. It was during that ridiculously long semester that God really opened my eyes to what that limited and unnatural socialization can do, and now ... well, now I pretty much laugh at anybody who brings up THAT argument against homeschooling. Quite honestly, socialization is at the very top of our list for why we DO homeschool. I believe it is a parent's responsibility to mold a child, and I am choosing to mold my younger children's social education by exposing them to real-world situations instead of the secluded microcosmic environment found only inside the walls of school classrooms.

Sorry, that turned into a mini-rant, didn't it? I mean no disrespect to anyone who chooses public schools for their child's education; I simply cannot 'go there' with my children anymore.

This year, I have two second graders and a kindergartener. Technically, Danica shouldn't start kindergarten until next year, since she doesn't turn five until almost the end of October; but she is just far too ready for me to put it off another year just to fit her in to the 'mold'. She isn't ready for much focused math yet, but considering the curriculum I used for Morgan and Jamie doesn't really have a kindergarten level, I'm not all that worried about it. It's kindergarten. And she's four. There will be plenty of time for calculus later.

Morgan will be my challenge this year, as I suspect she will for most of her schooling career. She is not detail-oriented, so she struggles with paying close attention to words she is trying to sound out phonetically. She also has trouble forming letters with a pencil; her fine motor skills are just not up to par. Both of these issues are starting to make her very self-conscious, so we are going to have to do a LOT of work on them this year. She's very much like her older sister Kelsey, who did a lot of guessing at words and letters, and didn't really care how messy her penmanship was. It affected Kelsey's comprehension skills as she advanced in learning levels, and I really don't want to see that happen with Morgan.

Jamie is an easy learner; she LOVES to soak up information, and the more detailed, the better. While Morgan wants to know WHY, Jamie wants to know HOW and WHAT. Morgan likes stories; Jamie loves maps, charts, and lists. You'd think this would be an easy child to teach but all of her details carry with it one glaringly obvious challenge--perfectionism. Just like her brother, Jamie gets incredibly frustrated if she can't get something perfect the first time. Correcting something is akin to dental drilling without anesthesia!

Curriculum for this lot was a tough call. It simply will NOT do to have a different book for each child. Everything has to be the same, or I get a complete revolt. I've tried a lot of different things over the years, but I think this year we finally have a good fit. I have really come to love Sonlight, especially in the early years, when children can be "hooked" into loving reading. Sonlight's book choices are wonderful, and they offer enough to hook Morgan with an engaging story while providing the detail that Jamie needs to fill her brain. This year we are jumping into world history with Sonlight's Core B, from creation to the fall of Rome. This works well with my overall plan to at least roughly adhere to a four-year cycle of history as outlined in The Well-Trained Mind. Core B is Sonlight's typical first-grade program, but considering I'm using the Core for only history, science, and read-aloud literature, it's not really that big of a deal. The girls' math and language arts books are really all that indicates 'grade level'. Morgan and Jamie are using Rod & Staff's Working Arithmetic 2, and they're currently working through Explode the Code book 3. Danica is beginning her year in Explode the Code book 1, and we are also using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading as reinforcement of phonics instruction. For spelling, we are using Christian Liberty Press' first grade spelling book, mainly because Morgan needs the reinforcement as we repeat, repeat, repeat the phonetic rules. Jamie could probably handle the second grade book, but again ... they *have to* be equal. Funny, considering they are 11 months apart!

My rough plan (I'm a planner, can't stand going into something without a firm idea of where we're going) is to use Sonlight for all of the girls for history, science, and literature in the early years (grammar stage), the Mystery of History, Apologia 'elementary' science, and Learning Language Arts Through Literature for the middle years (dialectic stage), and Tapestry of Grace with Apologia high school science for the high school years (rhetoric stage). I want to transition to Saxon Math for pre-algebra, but for right now Rod and Staff is great for learning the basics.

If you'd like to share what tools you're using in your homeschool this year, or you'd like to see/read about what others are using, hop on over to The Heart of the Matter and join in the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop!

This is one of "those" weeks.

This is shaping up to be a "totally useless" week by all external standards, but if there is one thing I've learned over our years of home education, it is the value in looking beyond the academic learning to the "real life" learning--there is a huge relief in knowing that my children ARE learning very valuable lessons even if their math books remain untouched. 

Sunday evening, our little three-month-old puppy Sasha started showing signs of illness; by mid-day Monday, she had lost two pounds and was starting to look severely dehydrated from incessant vomiting.  Monday afternoon, she was diagnosed with parvo.  It wasn't what the vet considered an "extreme" case, so she sent her home after giving her fluids and medicine.  I spent most of the morning yesterday (Tuesday) trying to keep fluids in her and when she took a turn for the worse, there was only one other course of action--Sasha is now in the animal hospital, being given intravenous fluids and medication in hopes of keeping her alive and strong enough to fight off the virus. 

As if yesterday wasn't stressful enough, early in the morning we learned that one of our dear friends had been taken by ambulance to the hospital...and Pete called from the hospital last night to tell me that Josh had no brain function at all.  Our hearts are hurting, but this was a victory for a young man whose life was frought with suffering.  Josh was born with birth defects and developmental handicaps and wasn't expected to live very long; he outlived both his mother and his grandmother!  Taken in and cared for by his aunt and uncle, he has been struggling the last few years (since his grandmother's death) with what to expect in the afterlife.  It frightened him, and the idea of a new and perfect spiritual body, he said, scared him to death.  He feared being able to know people he didn't know here on earth, he feared seeing dead people alive again, and he feared seeing the face of God. 

Thankfully, death came quickly for Josh--one minute he was complaining that he couldn't feel or move his arms or legs, the next, he was blue and lifeless.  God truly knows what we can handle, and in His infinite wisdom and provision, He chose to let Josh pass from this life to the next quickly and without being challenged with the fears he didn't understand.  Josh has nothing left to fear; he is in the presence of his mother and grandmother, in paradise with our forefathers, waiting on the Lord to take us all to Heaven.  In a fitting end to his earthly life, his organs are being donated so that Josh's life may be a blessing to people he didn't even know, extending the reach of people this young man touched with his relatively short life.  What a blessing Joshua Lyle was...and will continue to be.

As I said before, this week has been just "too much" already, for us to continue unimpeded with daily schedules and lesson plans.  Sometimes academics have to take a back seat to life, and that's what has happened this week.  My girls are still learning, however.  We've had discussions of viruses, hygiene, caring for the sick, even death and Heaven.  We have wept with joy and with sorrow, all at the same time.  And in celebrating death, we are also celebrating life.

Today is another milestone for our family--the middle child of the younger 'set' is four years old today.  Morgan, Jamie, and I have had several discussions this week about making Danica's birthday special for her, since she is often the one who gets the short end of the stick in many things.  Dani is sandwiched between two sets of Irish twins, so she is "all alone" in the middle--neither one of the babies or one of the big girls.  It's difficult sometimes to find something that identifies her because she wants so much to fit in that she really doesn't express her favorites or what she "loves" like Morgan and Jamie do.  It's going to be challenging to make today extra-special for her, considering that a lot of the focus this evening at Bible study will be on Josh's family....but we're taking cupcakes for Dani to share with everyone, and she gets to choose what we have for dinner tonight.  This weekend, we're going to visit the zoo as a special treat for her birthday. 

Happy Birthday, Danica Jill!!!

One week left!

I can't believe how pathetic I feel about this whole separation thing.  I mean, come ON--Pete has been deployed to war zones and we've gone MONTHS without hearing from him, why is it that five weeks is this much of a problem for me?

Because it just is.  And I'm okay with that.  I'm okay with the fact that I really, truly do MISS my husband.  I feel disconnected from him and therefore from myself.  I feel out of place everywhere I go.  I'm lonely.  But for the first time in my married life, I am giving myself permission to FEEL it.  During the war, I had to be the strong, rock-solid one that two dozen blubbering and sometimes clueless military wives (and one mom that I will never, EVER forget) called on at all hours of the day  for six solid months.  I had to be the one that everyone else drew strength from; I had to be the one who told everyone else that it would be alright, that they really could survive; I was the one who lived the independent, stony exterior while on the inside I was just falling apart, day after day.  I HURT from the loneliness, and it was anything but healthy to allow myself to do that.  I'm not going to do that anymore.

No, Pete isn't going to war zones--yet--the United Arab Emirates next year is still one that I'm undecided on as far as his safety goes.  But he's still not here with me, and I can't deny the fact that it really does cause me emotional pain for him to be gone.  I truly cannot WAIT till he gets off that plane next Friday!  No, not because I want to run away from the kids and get some peace.  Well...okay, I *do* need at least a slight break where I can go somewhere by myself and just enjoy a little bit of solitude, but that's not why I'm looking forward to having him home again!  Why is it that people seem to think that when you have a large family, all your husband is good for to you is 'babysitting' and household chore-sharing?  Why is it that I'm not allowed to be lonely and just need to have my beloved here with me where I can see him and talk to him face-to-face?  I am no different from any other woman who misses her man--I'm glad we're on our last six days!

That said, I'm expecting quite a week ahead of us!  I just received a free Christopher Columbus unit study from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Teacher's Toolbox so I think we're going to slightly 'interrupt' our regular history study for a week to study Columbus--leading up to a pretty amazing 'field trip' to Guntersville next Saturday *with Daddy* to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta!  I'm hoping to be able to swing a few minutes' time tomorrow evening to get my dining room curtains sewn and hung.  It shouldn't take long; a couple of straight stitches and a few screws should do the trick!  I really wanted to get the opportunity to get my paint touch-ups done, but considering I'm never really without ten extra hands--some of which REALLY love to get "involved" in whatever Mom is doing, that just never happened.  Other than the paint and the curtains, the dining room for now is DONE and I'm quite pleased with how it looks!  When Pete is home and I don't feel so odd about having a repairman in the house while I'm alone with five little girls, we'll have the fireplace opened up (for the first time in over nine years, from what I'm told!) and serviced so we can enjoy a nice warm fire. 

Next week's other main project?  The master bedroom.  It's horrific, there's no better way to put it.  I sleep in it and dress in it; that's pretty much the extent of what's been done behind those walls this last month.  Eek!

Today was pretty rough, but tomorrow, I'm expecting to have that last-week 'high' hit me as I kick into gear to get ready for Pete to come home!  Yay!

The Great Curriculum Adventure continues...

or the last (wait, how long have we been homeschooling?).....uh, twelve years, I have spent countless hours every year driving myself insane with curriculum catalogs and trying to fit what works and doesn't work with the children into what I'm comfortable teaching (not to mention what two rather opinionated teenagers were or were not willing to do).  My brain tends toward structured curriculum, with daily lesson plans telling me every step to take so I don't leave anything [important] out.  My heart, however, (as well as that of at least half of my children) is a wanderer--plagued with ADD and wanting to flit hummingbird-style from one activity to the next with no mapped-out course and who feels as if schedules and lesson plans are the choke chain of creative juice and intellectual hunger.  Does that make me a schizophrenic homeschooler?  Or does it define me as "eclectic"?

This past school year I spoke at one of our homeschool umbrella group's meetings on curriculum recommendations...and to the shock and humor of everyone there, my opening statement was along the lines of "I've learned over the last ten-plus years that curriculum is a tool...a tool that can change year-to-year to serve whatever concrete goals you have for your children both globally and temporarily, and that what works for one child one year may not work for another the same or any other year.  So....you take recommendations with a grain of salt, but the best planning in the curriculum adventure is knowing what your students need and how you, as their teacher, can provide the best tools to accomplish that goal."  Vague?  Well of COURSE it is!

Navigating the deep and ever-growing sea of educational materials can not only be intimidating, it can be completely overwhelming.  Even for a twelve-year veteran mom who has graduated two high school students!  Unfortunately, homeschool moms have a habit of being dreamers who want to do everything, and all those shiny books can be really tempting!  I, personally, loved Sonlight.  Everything about it....the books, the books, the BOOKS!  However, the prospect of doing two or three Cores (and that still meant combining at least two "sets" of girls) every year was more than my brain could comprehend.  That's a LOT of read-alouds every day.

As I've mentioned before, my educational philosophies have changed over the years.  I used to try to recreate the classroom experience, but that really doesn't much work for two students.  Twenty-five, yes.  But not two.  Or three.  Or even five.  Soooo....I had to re-evaluate what I was trying to DO; was it to merely pass on knowledge (no...the fact that my two oldest children are "smarter" than me math-wise makes it obvious that I want them to have knowledge beyond my own), or to train in the art of self-education?  Yep, that's it.  I want to teach them how to learn.  The more I read, the more I realized that I really do love the model of classical education as outlined both by Dorothy Sayers in her essay "The Lost Tools of Learning" and by Susan Wise Bauer in her book The Well-Trained Mind. 

HOWEVER....for the beginning of this school year, I'm dealing with two girls who are in dire need of focused, concentrated phonics instruction and handwriting practice.  I want them reading and writing well, and I want them to have a firm grounding in basic mathematics computation skills.  So yes, most of my focus at least for the first part of the year is going to be dedicated to the three R's, with not TOO much of an emphasis on science and history...although the books I've got for history and science are pretty intnse in and of themselves, so I'm sure just by reading and discussing what's in those books, they'll be absorbing a great deal of information!  I'm just not going to put a lot of emphasis on notebooking and recording much of their learned information yet until they're comfortable reading and writing.

For phonics, I'm combining several "good stuff" resources.  I used Adventures in Phonics (we are starting out with book A, which is technically for kindergarten, but they'll zoom through that and we'll get the more advanced book as soon as they're finished with the first one), from Christian Liberty Press years ago with Kelsey and was quite pleased with the results, but I didn't do it "heavily" enough.  I let her slip by with half-hearted efforts, thinking wrongly that she'd grow out of the laxidaisical nature and buckle down as soon as she could read well and enjoyed the material she was reading.  WRONG.  This is a child who, like Morgan now, was completely content to do the absolute minimum and in my lack of self-confidence as a teacher, I thought that it was okay.  It's NOT okay, and I know that now.  There is NO WAY I'm going to allow Morgan to skip through her education as she would a game of hopscotch.  Mean Mom is taking over, and this child is going to learn to read well, she's going to learn phonics well, and she's going to learn to comprehend the written word.  THIS YEAR.  I'm also adding The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading to my arsenal against illiteracy, and I've got a few things lined up in reserve if those two resources don't do the job.  We have sight word magnets, alphabet magnets for word-building, flash cards, you name it.  We're also backing up the phonics instruction with Christian Liberty's Building Spelling Skills, which I've used in the past and didn't really have a problem with, but I'm not really all that thrilled about it, so if in my perusing I find something I like better, we may switch next year if this doesn't work (or it bores them like it did with Jon and Kelsey). 

For math, we got nowhere last year with Horizons.  Neither Morgan or Jamie could focus with all the color that was on those pages.  I had to find something that wasn't as "pretty" while still being repetitious enough to cement them well in basic math facts.  I have long been a fan of Saxon for math, but their primary math programs are SOOOO expensive...and yes, cost is a factor for a family with six children at home.  So this year and probably until they can test into Saxon 5/4, it's Rod & Staff Math 1.  Uncluttered, unfluffy, but still meaty enough to give the girls the practice they need.  Funny thing is that they'll be flying through the first several weeks, because both of them know basically how to add single-digit numbers from last year--and I never even used a structured math program for them in kindergarten!  We just used everyday life to learn the fundamentals!

The other two subjects we'll be covering, only with a lighter focus, science and history, will be using some rather intense programs.  I'm doing this in the hopes that using interesting, user-friendly, and meaty materials will "stick" a good amount of the subject matter without us having to delve deeply while we spend most of our time and effort on the basics.  Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World series will be the backbone of our elementary history study, until the girls can "grow into" the Mystery of History series...and then I'd LOOOOOOOVE to jump headlong into Tapestry of Grace when Morgan and Jamie are ready for rhetoric-level studies.  For science, the plan is to use Apologia's Exploring Creation elementary science series twice--first as read-alouds and to just basically discuss and cover the meat on a basic level and then a second time more intensely as the girls are old enough to really learn from the Notebooks that go along with the text.    This year, we're studying the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day!  The girls are just so excited to learn about birds and all those flying critters we see so much of outside!  By the end of the week, we'll be covering Bernoulli's Principle and the basics of flight!  I have to say I never expected to be teaching anything this intense to a 1st grader, but if yesterday's discussion of archaeology and historians was any indicator, the gals can handle it!

You should see how little Danica (who won't be 4 for another two months) is tagging along with everything.  I got her some of Rod & Staff's preschool workbooks to "do school" while the big girls are working, and WOW does she get bent out of shape if anyone messes up HER BOOKS!!!!  Shelby had the NERVE to "help" Dani color a turtle today and you would have thought she'd stuck the book in a shredder!

Well...that's the scoop on the books that are on our shelf and table this year.  I hope you had as much fun as I did picking out your curriculum!

A dedicated school room, at last!!

As strange as this may sound, I still can't believe we have lived in this house for a full seven months already; it still all feels so new and unbelievable that God would take us from the 900 square foot apartment we (and five children) lived in just two and a half short years ago to THIS.  It is beyond what we ever thought we'd have, to be honest, and it's *just about* everything we've dreamed of for our family.  We just never get tired of saying how absolutely giddy with gratitude we are for the opportunity to set our family's roots down here, and for the provisions God has made not only for Pete's job, but for the desires of our hearts.  It is humbling to think that our piddly little prayers were actually answered with a resounding "Absolutely, and then some"!!

With August only a day and a half away and talk of back-to-school sales, tax holidays, and all manner of things school-related, I am being made ever more aware of a blessing in this house that God really saw fit to shock my socks off with--a space we have never had before--a real, dedicated school room!  FINALLY, a place for all that STUFF!!!!

Our homeschool journey began in yet another one of those 900-square-foot apartments in Germany, twelve years ago.  We only had two children, but that space was still pretty tight; especially when you consider that our dining room doubled as our school room AND our mock-office.  Believe it or not, our current kitchen is bigger than that dining room was.  Yet somehow, we fit a dining room table, four chairs, a computer desk, and four bookshelves in it.  We've not really had much more space for our home school "stuff" since then; we had a wee bit more space in the duplex we lived in on base before we bought this house, but it was still a shared space, combined with the girls' playroom.

Not so anymore.  It used to be a "formal" dining room, but we use what was previously the informal den (with a fireplace) for our dining room, so we have space to spare!  True, I do keep my scrapbooking supplies and some other craft items in our school room, but it's a room I've just fallen in love with, and Pete already knows not to even bother asking if the room will ever serve a "manly" purpose.....I'm going to be just a bit selfish and claim this room as MY territory to use for a library, school room, craft space....oh, all things girly.  He'll be okay; he's got his office space complete with a "me" wall in the bonus room.

I've been working on getting the school room set up in a way that works well for us since we moved in, and I *think* I've finally got it "there".  You'll have to pardon what there is left of a mess; I still have a couple of boxes of books to pass on to homes that can use them--we're not going to have any high school students in our home for a FEW more years.  Oh, and the girls really love to "help" me be sure I've got everything in the appropriate bins and shelves by taking everything out behind me, so I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find SOMETHING that needs to be put away.  But here's the work in progress, mostly finished and almost ready to begin that first day of first grade--I'm really hoping that nothing monumental comes up this weekend so I can finish my planning session and get started on Monday!

First, the wall that backs up to the living room; to the immediate left are two doorways--to the kitchen and living room.  To the right of the tall bookshelf, a window.  My scrapbook and crafting supplies are in the wall shelf and the tall shelf in this picture.  There is also a "Tell Me About Today" wall hanging, plus a really nifty Crayola dry erase ruled sticky sheet on the wall.  The girls' individual bins are in that little nine-section cube shelf.  Yes, I have my girls color-coded.  Morgan is pink, Jamie purple, Danica blue, Shelby green.  Kasey doesn't have a color yet--probably yellow, though.

Next up, the opposite wall.  Odd, but I don't have our school table in any of these pictures; it's directly below the flag wall hanging.  I guess I'll need better pictures.  Anyway, I lined the top of the room with character-word printouts (I'm sorry, I'll have to do some MAJOR digging to figure out where I printed them out from, but I know it was from an online source....) that have 26 different virtues to study during the year.  I like!

Last for now is the wall opposite the window; this wall has our sign language alphabet chart, Danica and Shelby's table (even though you can't see it down there), plus our duck pond flannelboard for Rod & Staff Math 1.  Let me just say that while it bebuggered Jamie to the Nth degree that I made half of the ducks facing left while the other half face right, I just LOVE our duckies and their pond!!!  I think the flannelboard is just too stinkin' cute, even if I do say so myself!

This was just a little bit of the work I've done in the schoolroom; I've got lots more to blog about as we get going on this school year...but one thing at a time, right?  Shoot, I'm just overwhelmed that I HAVE a schoolroom!

Well all-righty then!

So.....I get a message from the Cutest Blog on the Block that my previous blog theme was being deleted.....

Here we are--simplicity. Standard Blogger theme. Maybe IT won't go anywhere.

Ya think?

As far as my writer's block goes, this really was the right time of year to have it; there has been not a single five minutes of any day to actually do any blogging in anyway! I'm writing this as I wait for everyone to be finished with breakfast so we can get moving and head off to the commissary for the weekend's groceries (and you read that right; I have still not planned adequately enough to have ALL of my grocery shopping done)!

I don't think we've had a "down" day for a week, come to think of it. Maybe next week?

One of these days, I've got to scrounge up some semi-free time so I can get some lesson planning done, if I want to stick to my schedule of starting school the first week in August. I've started all the other years the week after Labor Day....and as I stare at the calendar disappearing before my eyes, I remember all too vividly WHY I did things that way. I do at least have most of the school room arranged the way I want it; there's still a mountain of books atop the table in there, because I'm still weeding through what I have no reason to keep for twelve more years till the younger girls can grow into books the older two used in high school. The bookworm in me is in agony every time I take a book off of the shelf and box it up. She'll be okay; we still have to educate five more children!

Summer School for Mom

I'm spending my summer doing some serious studying--for my OWN learning. My brain has been so swamped lately and on autopilot for far too long, I needed the time to refocus. And I am really enjoying it, I have to admit!

A huge portion of my summer reading and learning has to do with our homeschooling journey, that is officially re-starting (even though the younger girls have been "enrolled" in home education since birth) with Morgan and Jamie entering first grade this Fall. I've come to realize that kindergarten skills are just so vague that it's almost hard to determine when they've officially "started", so I'm just going to stick with first grade as being our "start" point for recordkeeping purposes. Shoot, Danica and Shelby are even learning some kindergarten skills, and there is NO way I'm going to bother with keeping records for a 3-year-old and a 22-month-old. Hmm.....got a tad off-topic there for a moment, now didn't I?

ANYway....if you've read my blog for a while, you know that I've been struggling with the gaps in my older children's education--namely, their spiritual and moral education. Pete and I have always thought we were doing things "right", keeping things more spiritually focused than they would have been had the kids been in standard schools....but lo and behold, the same problems arose for us that hit our public-schooled peers head-on in their own parenting journey. You know what? I've come to realize, it's not just the "school" part of it that was the problem (although I admit we were WAY too laxidaisical and didn't require nearly as much dedication to excellence as we should have), it's far more than that. One of my reading assignments to myself this summer has already been completed--R.C. Sproul, Jr.'s book When You Rise Up. Let's just say my eyelids are still sore from being flung wide open, shall we? That little book, even though I do disagree with the author on certain points (I don't believe in the authority of extrabiblical....well, anything--if it's not found in God's Word, I'm not interested in placing it as an authority or equal with Biblical doctrine), has truly rocked my quiet little boat, and I'm still trying to get my bearings! WOW. I'll say this--if you want to be challenged, it's an excellent book to blow up the borders of your comfort zone, that's for sure!

Along with reading some other books, I have fully engulfed myself in products from The Old Schoolhouse. I first saw their magazine at a bookstore at one of the bases in Germany and I fell in LOVE. However, it had always been so hard for me to keep up with subscriptions while moving all over the world, so I placated myself with the occasional bookstore find. Now, though...well, now I know we're going to be planted firmly right where we are for what I hope and pray will be a good, long time, and now I don't have the slightest issue with purchasing subscriptions to our favorite periodicals! TOS has a deal going where you can get a two-year sub, a cute little tote bag, plus a whole boatload of free e-materials (my puter desktop is just crammed full now!) for $39, which is a GREAT deal...and yup, I took 'em up on that little offer! I downloaded all of the e-books and have just immersed myself in digital reading these last few weeks! Oooh, and I love my little tote bag--it's so cute! Okay, I know, I'm silly when it comes to tote bags. I'm a bag-a-holic, and somehow if a tote bag is included in the deal, I just can't resist! But ya know, with five little ones around, I've always got a reason to have a tote bag packed for something.

Wow, am I scatterbrained today, or what? Oh well. If you want to sample a couple of TOS's freebies (they have TONS! Just go peruse their site and look for the beach ball!), I'll share some links that I've been enjoying as of late. These are both digital downloads--the Homeschool 101 download is great for newbie homeschoolers as well as vets in need of a little refreshing. There's also a wonderful resource that I'm just loving--a product review in a digi-mag format--the Guide to Examining Curriculum. Aside from Cathy Duffy's book on curriculum, this has been my favorite go-to resource! TOS reviews bundles and bundles of homeschool products every year, and finding those reviews in one place is just fabulous!

Now I've gone and turned into a commercial, haven't I? Well, sorry, but when I find something I'm just in love with, I want to share! While I'm at it, go check out their 2010 Homeschool Planner. This is, bar none, the most wonderful planner I've EVER found...and Pete can attest to the fact that I've purchased just way too many planners. It's a PDF download, and the fill-in fields are writable, so it's fully customizable. Big plus--there are over six HUNDRED pages of forms and resource articles to peruse...it'll take you all year to go through it, and honestly, I couldn't think of a form I'd use that wasn't on this thing! Okay, in all fairness...I still love my DonnaYoung.org and she's got many resources and forms on her site that TOS's planner doesn't have, but between the two, I'm set for YEARS!

I'm gonna go now....I have a ton more reading to do! So....do tell....what are YOU reading this summer?

That is one BIG binder!

Seriously, folks, aside from some of the ginormous training manuals Pete has brought home over his Army career, I don't think I've EVER seen a 3-ring binder THIS big and THIS full! Wowsers! Somebody at Sonlight has done a TON of homework for my benefit (oh, and for others too, but I'll let them be thankful in their own time), and believe you me, I am forever grateful!!! This big, huge (yes, Pete, I redundified myself again--oooh, and made up a new word!) binder holds the Instructor Guide for Sonlight's Core K, the Instructor Guide for the kindergarten language arts course, the schedule for the readers, plus the Instructor Guide for kindergarten science! There are also numerous activity sheets in there as well, and if the nasty glares I'm getting from Morgan and Jamie when I tell them that "no, we can't start school today, Mom still needs to get acquainted with umpteen hundred pages in my binder!," then I can pretty well guarantee that they'll LOVE all the wondermous goodness that's ahead for us in the next school year! Just LOOK at this thing!!!!! Isn't it HUGE???? It's bigger--well, fuller--than the binder I had for Jon and Kelsey two years ago when we did American History in Depth for high school!

I'm just in awe. It's enormous. This is "Momster Binder" sitting on my cluttered (I'm still working on that) desk next to my poor, pitiful little Home Management Binder, which I assure you, is no lightweight itself!The inside.....just getting to Page 1 seems intimidating, except for the fact that my entire year is already planned out for me day-by-day, and I just LOVE that! No more planning too much and not getting nearly what I'd like to do accomplished!

Oh yeah....the other "meat" of the Core K program--the BOOKS!!! Wonderful, glorious BOOKS!!! All grade-stickered (hence the pink spine-labels) and covered in Contact Paper for their protection (and my peace of mind--these babies have got to last through three more babies)!

Speaking of the aforementioned Home Management Binder, I've tweeked a bit from last year. Wait, strike that. TWO years ago. I figured the title page needed a bit of updating since the pictures I had on it were, well, OLD. Besides, we've added another face. I like to do my section title pages in scrapbook style--it gives me a little boost to actually USE the binder since I do like it so much once it's done to my standards! Notice I left a tag to put our [still unnamed] unborn little one's picture on once she arrives? Hey, leave no stone unturned! The scripture at the bottom is the same as it was on the page I replaced, Proverbs 31:27.I also added a section for my own studies (notes from sermons I want to look further into, study handouts from Bible Class, other stuff here and there) and a journal! Streamlining! Woooohooo!

This may seem like a boring picture to you, but for some reason, it inspired both Pete and Kelsey to laugh at me and how.....over-organized I am trying to be. Huh? I don't get it. What's the big deal about colored index cards and wet erase markers to write on my page protectors so I don't have to print out page after page after page? Sheesh, give a gal a break, willya?

Now that I've got Morgan and Jamie planned for, it's on to planning for Kelsey. Easy, for the most part, since she wants her entire senior year to be on computer. Switched-On-Schoolhouse it is! Lesseee.....Chemistry (again--Apologia seemed to just be too in depth for her), English 12, American History (again--Pete was NOT thrilled that she seemed to retain nothing about US History from a few years ago, so this is by his insistence that she take it over), Family Sciences (ooooh, a fancy title for "home ec"), Art, Civics, and still an elective or two to figure out. It is all about to come crashing down around her just how close she really is to graduation, considering we're attending our homeschool group's graduation ceremony for this year's grads TONIGHT. Wow. Next year (good Lord willing and the creek don't rise....whatever that means), it will be Kelsey in a cap and gown! Heehee.....we'll have to do a kindergarten graduation too!

The battle of the books

I think after all these years of dragging boxes and boxes (and boxes, and boxes) of STUFF around, I've reached my breaking point. As Pete and I look to the not-so-distant future of finally settling into a house that we plan on living in for a good, long while, the daunting task of finding a place big enough for all of our STUFF brings reality to the forefront. We've got a lot of STUFF.

I'll be the first to admit, I have a problem when it comes to books. I don't just collect them; I tend toward hoarding. I'm like the crazy cat lady of books--if someone has a castoff, I'll take it and give it a new home on my shelf. Not such a bad thing--I do read most of them--but the problem lies in the fact that my shelf overfloweth. Shelves, I should say. Oh, and nevermind I still have homeschool books that didn't work for us when we started homeschooling eleven years ago. Why did I keep them? I haven't the foggiest idea.

Today, I'm going to do something I've not even considered humanly possible--I'm purging my shelves. I'm going to make the decision (that Pete's been asking me to make for years) to dedicate our schooling to ONE curriculum, and get rid of the STUFF that I'm never going to use or is just taking up space needed for something more pertinent.

Wish me luck; this is no small undertaking!