One Day

I have droned on and on about our homeschooling experience this past school year so now it's time to put down on "paper" what we'll be doing next year! I'm really excited for next year. 1) I feel I have a much better idea as to what is/isn't working for our family and 2) I really enjoy teaching Cora! Also, Ben will begin preschool and be gone in the morning 3 days a week, and Rebekah will be older and hopefully more entertained with paper and crayons! We shall see...I'm sure I'll have more to say on that LATER! One thing I have learned is there is really no ONE curriculum that covers every single subject you need. There are a few that will provide every subject for you, but they tend to be quite pricy and they're just pulling from other resources anyway. It's taken time to look at and research what we wanted to use. If you're new at this I would suggest reading Cathy Duffy's description of the different approaches to homeschooling...

Last year a few of my friends, also homeschoolers, went to Cincinnati to a huge homeschool convention. I chose not to go because I was about to embark on our first year, and I had a feeling the convention would just make me feel even more overwhelmed and inadequate! However, when it came time this year I was all set and ready to go! A) It was a fun weekend away with friends and B) wow! I learned a lot!! My 3 good friends and I headed down to Cincinnati to be part of the Great Homeschool Conventions  that took place in April. Between us there are 11 kids, 10 of which are girls, Ben, our son, being the only boy! Ages range from almost 2 to almost 12! We stayed in a hotel a block or so from the convention building, had so much fun, and learned so very much. And, as a side note, I'm so glad I didn't go last year! Sessions started at 8:00 a.m. and there were a good 15 sessions held every hour. You could choose anything from parenting classes to curriculum guidance sessions. ...

So, after we made the decision to discontinue doing Classical Conversations as our homeschooling program I was a bit at a loss as to how to proceed. Thankfully, my mom is a teacher and especially loves kindergarten and 1st grade! After sharing my concerns with her she assured me that right now, in kindergarten, focusing on reading, writing and math were most important. And, so that's what we focused on, for the most part... We learned that Cora not only LOVES math, but is quite good at it! She whipped quickly through K math and is now almost done with 1st grade (we're currently using Singapore Math, though will be changing that in the fall--stay tuned for what we do next year...). Geesh! I HATED math as a child, by the way ...I have distinct memories of HATING math in 1st grade. Seriously. I mean, really, 1st grade math? However, she HATES handwriting...something I LOVED! As you can imagine this has been interesting. I've had to hold my temper (failing often. Just keepin...

We're going to officially wrap up our school year after Memorial Day. Cora has done fantastically this year, and I truly give all the glory to the Lord. I mean, we've had some rough days. It was way harder then I expected to try and teach simple addition and subtraction to my 5 year old while keeping the 1 year old from climbing on the table and the 3 year old entertained. But! We have made it through and I feel much better having the 1st year under our belts! We are not saying we will be homeschooling from now on. We are seriously taking it each year as it comes. We plan to homeschool for 1st grade at this point. But, before we move on to next school year I've been thinking a lot about everything we did this school year, the things I'm happy with, and the things I wish we'd done differently. I wanted to put it in a blog--not because I think what we did/didn't do was the best/worse, or it's what your family should do. I'm doing it mostly for my own men...

I mentioned earlier that we are homeschooling our oldest daughter, Cora. She's finishing up Kindergarten at the moment, and it's been a good year! We are doing reading, writing and math but we also wanted to do things to keep her involved with other kids her age. A good friend of mine had told me last year about this Bible study she and her daughters went to every week. I looked into it and knew the kids and I would need to be a part of it.  Starting in September, we joined a Community Bible Study  campus. We LOVED it!!!!! Let me tell you a bit about how it works. The kids are split up into age-appropriate classes and learn Bible stories, memorize Bible verses, have a time of singing, and are just loved on by their teachers. The women are split up into core groups (small groups) of 10-14 people and study from the same book. This year we studied the book of Romans. We would open each time corporately with singing, prayer and a short introduction. Then, we split into our gr...

Do you ever reach a point in life where you feel like you're going to explode if you don't get away right now ?? Our life, probably like yours, has been crazy-busy lately. There's been a lot of stuff going on at church, with our kids, just life in general. It's pointless to write it all out because it'll just overwhelm me again and I'd probably forget something! In any case, we needed to get away. David's birthday was the beginning of this month and so I figured that was the perfect "excuse" to get away. I planned a little mini-vacation for us, told David to find someone to preach for him on Sunday, and away we went, returning yesterday. We dropped the dog off at my parent's house, then the kids off at my mother-in-law's. Once they were settled, David and I got in the car, went out for lunch and went on our merry way on our little vacation. I booked 2 nights in a nice hotel that had suites. My husband is an avid Cincinnati Red's fan s...