The Last Day of this Year, and this Decade...

So this decade is coming to a close, its been a tough year for me, but also a year full of growth. I don't have a lot of New Years resolutions this year, except to be consistent with my children's phonics and math instruction, whether I feel like doing it or not, and to start having my son do more copywork and dictation, I am thinking that since we try to help him memorize bible verses for his Awana book, those might be good starting points for copywork.  He is getting older, and dyslexic or not sooner or later he has to develop the ability to write legibly, to read better, and even to compose his own written messages. We did copywork consistently for awhile, and it really helped him a lot, so I know we need to start it up again.

I am thinking I may also have him do some copywork from "Little House in the Big Woods", since we will be reading it together as a family.

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Philip, My Father in Law

I first met my Father-in-law in 1990, I was dating my future husband and he brought me to meet his parents. I remember my thoughts that day...

I grew up in a family where we showed affection to each other, but not really to people we didn't know really well.  If you came to our house, you would be greeted cordially, but not warmly.  So I was unprepared for what happened when I met my husband's parents.  I entered the door, was introduced, and both of his parents greeted me with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  My father-in-law also grabbed my arm and squeezed it in what I am sure he meant as a friendly gesture... he squeezed so tightly he left bruises where his fingers were.  Both of my husband's parents treated me like a member of the family from the very start, they were great, but I found them a little overwhelming at first, their affectionate behavior would take some getting used to.

When my husband I were married, I was so glad to officially be a member of this loving family.  I rarely ever really thought of my in-laws in the terms that many people think of in-laws, instead I felt like I had two sets of parents, and when my own mom passed away, I took great comfort in knowing that I still had my Mother-in-law, who, along with my Father-in-law, made me feel like I had been adopted by them.

My father-in-law was a no nonsense kind of guy, and while he showed physical affection readily, he didn't express his feelings in words.  He wasn't the kind of guy to often say, "I love you", in fact I am not sure if I ever heard those words from him.  But he showed his love every day.  He always thought about how to help others.  Whether that was by letting us rent a house for much less than he could have gotten from anyone else, building a fence in front of that house to give my first daughter a safe place to play, or giving my husband a riding lawn mower so that he could maintain the property we were blessed with by him and his brother. If I was to make a list of all the ways that man helped over the years, it would be incredibly long, I wonder if he knew just how much I appreciated him, how much I loved him.

He lived next door, and I remember how he would come up to our house, and rather than walking up the door and knocking, he would look into the windows to see if anyone was up and around.  I would be walking through the house and catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye and be so startled.  It used to drive me crazy.  Now that he is gone I am saddened that it will never happen again.

He used to love to tease people, and always had a joking remark about things I would say.  Sometimes I was irritated by that, but the other day as I was considering sharing with my mother-in-law my goals for the coming year, I forgot for just a minute that he was gone, and I imagined the things he might say.  Then I remembered and knew I would give anything to hear him say them.

While he always had a joke to tell, he was never truly critical of me.  Many times he stopped by when the house was a huge mess, but never did he say anything about it.  He always seemed to overlook my faults, as if he couldn't see them.  He would say that I was pretty, but not mention that I was obese.  He would tell me I was doing a great job with my kids, but not mention that I couldn't seem to keep a clean house.  He only mentioned the positive things to me, and never did anything that made me feel like less of a person.

Now he is gone, and I am wondering if he knew how much I loved him and appreciated all this about him.  I know I told him that I loved him, but I don't think I ever sat down and had a heart to heart telling how much I appreciated him, telling him that I thought he was wonderful.  I doubt he would have let me finish if I'd tried, because he really never would sit and listen to someone praise him, he would have shrugged it off and tried to make his good points seem insignificant.

Well, I know he is with the good Lord now, and I don't know if he can see us here on Earth or not, but I pray that somehow he knows how special he was to me, and how much I'll miss him.

Modified Christmas Break

My kids would love to have a full Christmas break, with no homeschool at all.  However, we are behind in phonics due to changing curriculums in October, and then having to take two weeks off in November.  Also, my oldest daughter was given exact instructions on how to do her History, but I realized the other day that she wasn't following those instructions very well.

So my younger kids are continuing Phonics through Christmas break, although I will give them Christmas Eve and Christmas day off, and my oldest is reading to sections a day of her history book out loud to me so we can discuss it.  She will also get time off for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but no the whole two weeks that we would usually take.

So much for my Christmas break!

Working and Homeschooling

Being a Stay-At-Home parent is the ideal situation for homeschooling, but sadly we do not live in a ideal world, and some of us have to work outside jobs to make ends meet.  This could be because of the week economy, or because someone is a single parent.

For my family it is because of the economy, I work part-time cleaning other people's houses.  I really miss being home full time with kids, having all the time I need to do fun activities and experiments, but at this time working is necessary, so I am finding ways to make homeschooling work in this less than ideal situation.

Recently I have not been managing my time as well as I should, and often things have been left undone.  I don't worry about it too much if its a subject like Science or History, because my kids get those subjects at co-op anyway, I mean, we still try to do them at home, but if we fall behind its not that big a deal.  However, when it comes to Math and Phonics I feel it is vital to do them at least 4 days a week, and lately I've been letting phonics slip more than I'd like.  Math is easy, because my little girl works well alone, and my son uses Teaching Textbooks, so I am not really needed much for that subject.  However when it comes to phonics and reading, I need to be there.  My son is dyslexic, and needs to do his phonics lessons regularly, he also needs my supervision to check his accuracy as he reads.   This has been the issue lately when I work later than expected and return home tired.  I have chosen to skip phonics a few times, and then of course feel guilty about it.

Well today, I got up at 5:30, I worked out for 1 1/2 hours, then I got ready for work and left.  My husband had the kids do Math while I was gone.  I didn't get home until around 4:30, and was tired and hungry, so I rested and had a small lunch.  Then I rested more, I was extra tired because I am still regaining strength after being sick, I just couldn't seem to get the energy to do anything right away.  Later, after I had dinner on the stove, I realized that I needed to do Phonics.  So we did it then, and got done at 7:30, then we ate dinner.  At least I got it done today.  I know that I have to start doing this daily, no matter how tired I am, and I guess today was a good start, I showed that I can do it, even after working an extra long day while suffering fatigue from the H1N1 I recently suffered through.

So I guess the point of my post is that while its difficult, homeschooling can work even if the parent has to have an outside job, but it takes commitment and perseverance. It takes determination, and sometimes it takes just going through the motions to get it done, even when you don't really want to.  I am sure I'll post more on this subject later, as I am trying to work out a good schedule to follow to allow me to always get the things done I need to do.

Merry Christmas!

We FINALLY have our tree up!  As I promised yesterday, I'll post pictures of us decorating it, and of the tree when it is all done.

So here are some pictures of us decorating the tree:

As you can see from those pictures above, Samuel is tall enough now to only need a little step stool in order to put the tree topper on.  You can also see that he started with the star tree topper that I bought for this year, but it was too heavy for our tree, it flopped over to one side and wouldn't stay straight, so we went back to the little Angel we have used for years.

Now for some pictures of the tree all finished:

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing that we found while decorating was this:

I don't know what happened to poor Mickey... he was in one piece last year when he was put away!  Well, I glued him together, at least all the pieces I could find...

He's still missing a hand.  Maybe we'll find it when we put the ornaments away?

Getting Back to Business

Well, today we were all feeling a little better, not 100% by any means, we still all have nagging coughs that won't go away, but our fevers and most of the fatigue is gone, and our throats are not as sore as they were before.  So we decided to start getting back to the business of homeschooling.

All the younger kids did today was our Advent devotions, Math, and Phonics.  It took most of the day to get it all done though, in fact, the kids  are still working on their phonics worksheets right now.  My older daughter had a more normal day, she gets most of her homeschool done early in the morning, does Math, French, Writing, PE, and Chemistry mostly on her own, History she reads out loud to me and then we discuss the questions in the book together.

We are getting ready to go shopping for a new tree, we have an artificial, pre-lighted tree that is several years old, but the stand got bent, and its too big for our house anyway, so we are going to buy a smaller artificial tree.  Since the cost for a brand new artificial tree is about the same as for a real tree, even all we get is two or three years use out of it, we still saved money, not to mention the hassle of sweeping up pine needles and the fire hazard of a real tree.

My oldest daughter wants a white tree... but I prefer the more real looking green ones.  Maybe I should have the kids vote, or just flip a coin, or maybe I'll play the mom card and get what I want even if they don't like it that much!

Well, I'll post a picture of the tree when we get it decorated, for now I'm signing off.

Well, I Decided.

After much deliberation, I've decided to leave my blog up at homeschoolblogger, even though I also have this blog, I have too many treasured memories in my archived posts there, and too many great contacts to give up on homeschoolblogger altogether, and its really not that difficult to do regular entries there, it is only difficult to do entries with lots of links and embedded Bible verses... those are much easier on here on blogger. So my Bible studies and devotions will move to Moments With My Savior. Also, I am going to give up on Project 365 for the rest of this year, and then next year, I think I'll take it up again, but open a blog on blogger for it, leaving my homeschool blogs for homeschool posts and personal posts, I'll just cross post between the two homeschool blogs.

Speaking of personal posts, I have been so sick that it isn't even funny! But I'm getting better now, and have decided that I need to get busy with my studies again, I have fallen behind because of the fatigue I had when I was sick (H1N1 is no fun!). Now I have to catch up with both my Small Engine Repair course and the Bible Studies I've been working on. Unfortunately, even though I am more eager to do the Bible Study, its the small engine repair that has a deadline attached, so I have to work on that first.

I am fascinated with Mechanics, but not as much as I am with My LORD! So I will work on my Small Engine Mechanics course a little, and then hopefully be able to do more in depth Bible study soon. Reminds me of the book "The Tyranny of the Urgent".

Well, I am glad to finally be on the mend today, still not 100% but definitely better than I have been for about a week. Now I'm off to study!

When Mom is Sick

When mom is sick everything changes at our homeschool, often, we still do some things, but today, every time I try to speak I end up choking and hacking until I vomit.  So today, no homeschool.  I have been sick since Friday night, and I'm tired of it already!  I want it to go away!

The kids are not complaining, they have been given extra TV time to make up for it.  ;)

I really hope I can get over this by tomorrow, because I am supposed to work tomorrow.

Still Debating

I am still debating what to do about my old blog.  It has so much history on it, and one of the problems with Homeschoolblogger is that there is no way to automatically back up your blog.  I hate to just lose all those posts if I delete the blog.  Its a history of my homeschooling journey over the past 3 years or so.  Perhaps I could just leave it open for now, and post once a month or so with a link to this new blog.  Still, I am thinking I'd like a permanent version somewhere, perhaps I could print the pages and compile a scrapbook.  It would be a lot of paper, but I wouldn't have to do every single post, only the ones that I want for the scrapbook. 

Another idea would be to copy the HTML and bring the best of the old posts over here.  I could change the date time stamp to show the date they were originally published on homeschoolblogger. 

I just hate to lose all those posts, so I don't think I'll delete the blog unless I back it up somehow.  After all, it shows us doing so many of the fun learning we often don't have time for anymore!  :(

Introducing This Blog and Our Family!

This blog will be focusing on homeschooling, I have already been blogging about my homeschooling adventures on My Other Homeschool Blog, but I have found it is easier to create posts here on blogger.  I might still cross post to my old blog, but for now I am looking forward to using this one.

My family has been homeschooling since my first child was a toddler.  We firmly believe that this option provides the best education for our children, that is not to say that it will be best for everyone, but for us it is.

So, I'll introduce you to my kids.  First my son Samuel, he is going to be 10 this month.  He is a sweet boy, good at math, but doesn't really like to do it anyway!

Next, I'll introduce my oldest daughter, she is 16.   Her name is Eliana, she loves to sing, and her favorite group is Switchfoot.  She sings on our church's youth worship team, and sometimes with our homeschool co-op chapel time.  She just started a New Blog too. She is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up.  She likes to wear hats, this is the one I think looks cutest on her.

Now to introduce my "baby" (don't tell her I called her that).  This is Danielle, she is 6 years old.  She recently took a trip to Disneyland with a friend, and now her life's goal seems to be to go back someday.  I wish her luck with that because our family can't afford to take the trip, if the friend hadn't invited her along, she never would have gone either!  She likes Club Penguin, cats, Awana club, and Beanie Babies.

So there we are.  We enjoy learning together, lapbooking, doing science experiments and crafts.  We don't have as much time to do these things as we used to, because finances have dictated that I work outside the home. Since I started working, we are less hands on and more book oriented, but we still homeschool and will continue to do so!