First Day of School...so far...at 10:15 am ;o)

Well, despite what other friends may do...I actually had our schedule all done (at 10 pm the night before-it resembled a Boot Camp schedule!) and most of the books organized and ready on the shelf. We had prayed about school, hubby and I, and had a plan to start the day off right with the B-I-B-L-E! BIBLE! Where to begin...but...of course...Proverbs!

So, dear hubby did his devotions in Proverbs for the day and wrote out some notes and discussion points for us! Yeah!

I was ready. I was up early (at least earlier than the kids and in time to kiss hubby goddbye before he left for work!)I had some laundry washing and was outside basking int eh beauty of GOd's creation and the wonderous coolness ofthe morning, a mild 67 degrees! FOr a FL summer-that is a wonderous thing! I had dreams that autumn would be early this year. Instead, I jsut realized that no, I am usually enver out that early and that could be quite normal for this tme of year-I wouldn't know the difference. Then the first child woke up. We spent a few minutes aloe together until....

...the appointed time for breakfast, 8:00, crept up on us, only one child was awake. I sent the one child to wake her older sister at about 7:52. I did not hear happy morning sounds, but rather grumblings and groanings that it was NOT 8:00 yet. We had a little talk about getting up BEFORE the alloted time to allow a few minutes of personal time before we were to begin breakfast.

Well, the grumblings and groanings persisted for the older of the two and were quickly spreading to the rest of the ranks.

8:30! Aha! The awaited time of Bible study!!!! I read Provebs 1:1-9 after opening in prayer. As we got into the discussion questions, one by one the children started to eagerly run to get THEIR Bibles! All four of them! PTL! Even our son who is a struggling reader was doing his best to read the words that he could! We had some good discussion and I praise God for the Power of His Word (tear, tear sniff sniff!) to transform grumbly hearts and turn it towards Him!

Bible Study done! Off they went! THe older two went off to do chores and to help the youngest do her chores (what they can get out of a three-year-old anyway.) And so begins the school day with three kids, and one wanna be school kid.

I started doing the Sonlight History section with Bekah. It started with Martin Luther. Hmmm. I like Martin Luther as well as the next protestant, but I'm not quite sure they realized that this was a FIVE year old! I was losing her fast! So, we got out her Bible and we read the Creation account. Much more interesting for a five-year-old.

And other thant he read -aloud we'll do later, The Box Car Children, that was it. I didn't have the poems book (or want it) and I am not too into Mother Goose. So that was it for our History section. She was not done however and was quite eager to get to her reading stuff. So we brought out Explode the Code and away she went. She did well with her handwriting and beginning letter sounds.

Now we are on break time. It is 10:30...break over! Now for History for the older two. We are still working on last year's History. We didn't finish it, primarily because we did some extra stuff on the side. We did a month and a half of US History in preparation for our trip to Washington DC. So, that is why we are only half way through the History section from last year. I plan to skip a bunch as the History for next year (this year!) goes back a bit and covers some of this again, in a different way.

One thing I have a hard time doing is fitting in the extra stuff. I have lots of rsources to go along with what we are doing so I dont' know from time to time whether I should skip some stuff to add the extra or if should do everything and add the extra on top?

Well, I suppose that would depnd on how tought the week was, how many dr. appts we had (today we have three appts, tomorrow an early dentist and then another dentist on Wed!) Not exactly a good week to start school, but when is? :o)

Well, that's all for now. If I have time to write how the rest of the day went, I will.

February 2009

So here it is...a new year...and much has changed. What you may ask? Good question...churches, me...stuff. you know.

So today I did church nursery. Normally it is myself and a teenage girl that does it but I happened to know that this girl was out of town so I took my 9 year old daughter. She was quite apprehensive about it, as if she hadn't a clue in the world how to play with kids. She has three younger siblings but apparently that was not quite enough experience.

She did great. Normal is not a word I would use to describe today's experience. There was a new family with an almost 3 year old boy and a 3 1/2 month old baby. So that topped out our crew of 1 two year old girl, three 2 two year old boys, my three kids and the baby. Not too bad. As the mom of one of the boys was dropping off her son, she saw the kids in there and asked if I needed help, SURE! I said perhaps a little too enthusiastically. She said she wouldn't be able to pick up the kids as she had been rear-ended in an accident earlier in the week so her back was strained a little still.

As we were finishing up snack time during a mostly uneventful morning, one boy, he shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, decided to grab our marker that we use to mark the cups. It was a retractable Sharpie. He colored on his shirt and his belly, and was working on the table before we could get to him.

So, I grabbed the marker and put it away. Then grabbed the hand sanitizer to help get the stain out (it is an alcohol base and that gets out most pen and marker stains on non-porous surfaces). It was getting the stain out but I needed to rinse it. So, off came the shirt and we spied a sweater that someone had left so we placed that on the boy. As I rinsed, I turned around and realized I had left the sanitizer on the table WITH the boy! It was now, all over the table. I was not concerned over the loss of the product as much as I was worried if he had ingested it. It only takes about three squirts of the stuff to give a small child alcohol poisoning.

We continued to rinse the shirt and got a good bit of it out. He then dumped a glass of water all over the table. Then the box of crayons got it next. They had an exciting field trip to the floor.

Each thing was a battle to have him clean it up of course. We ended up putting the shirt in the dryer. It was still wet when his parents got him. I noticed he had on a diaper so as it got closer to time, I dreaded changing it. But he happily complied to that. I grabbed what I thought was his diaper bag and changed him. There were some Cheerios in the bag so I let him have some while I changed him. As I was replacing the bag on the hook, the other worker said, did you change him with that bag? Yes, I replied. She said, That is ours. Oh no! I was so sorry.

Well...I think that was most of it. Aside from one of the other little boys have a potty accident.

So that was my nursery service...

Some time, I will share about how we wrangled a snake out of my mother-in-law's house.

The Old Schoolhouse

I am a new subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse e-mail newsletter and enjoy the wealth of info that they provide. Not just the amount but the variety of the content. There is surely something there for everyone. I can't wait to order the magazine as well. I also love the Freebie Friday! :o)

TOS

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Spring Promo is in full bloom.

Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive

25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550!

The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!

The HSB Front Porch is having a contest and

you can win a $50 gift certificatejust for blogging about

the Spring Promobefore midnight April 13, 2008.

Click HERE for details.

Homeschool Curriculum

Ok so we just got back from a LARGE homeschool convention, around 10,000 people attending and hundreds of vendors. I spoke with many friends about their curriculum choices and while there are so many more choices now than when my husband, Dave, was in school, it feels as though there is still something lacking. One friend we spoke with is Australian, and lives in Brazil with his Brazilian wife and their two kids. They frequent the States, where their mission organization is based. His problem is this: he buys "American" curriculum and so it includes American presidents, holidays and weather, measurements and phonics! He was wanting something that would have metric measurements at the very least! Also, since I am Canadian, I would like to find something to teach Canadian history and heritage to my kids.

So, what do you use and why? How does it work for your family and what have you tried that didn't? Every family is as different as the families that make it up so what works for one might not for another. We all have different needs in regards to time and learning/teaching styles. Which is what makes homeschooling so awesome.

So let's hear it! And could you include links to your favorite homeschooling website?

Thanks!

Wow was that ever easy!

Cool. I love gmail! They make life so easy and simple. Or at least as much as it can be. Now the question is... how often will I get to write? Probably more often than anyone will read this! :o)