Catching up:)

Hi everyone,
Sorry to have been MIA for so long wherever does the time go? Well last week we had a busy busy week after I finally felt better I spiked a fever last Saturday night and had a low grade temp up to Tuesday. So I hunkered down and stayed in. Then Wed was hubby's day off and those are always fun days but busy busy going places and getting things done:) He was able to go to Awana's with the kids which they really loved. Thursday little princess had a ballet lesson, one of the homeschooled teens in the area is doing preschool/kindergarten age girl lessons for $1 a week! Its awesome and so cute to watch. It is the Christian homeschool group in our area which is rather large and it is great to chat with other Christian moms while the girls learn:) Then Saturday we had my small group with Church this was our day to collect food for our food drive we are doing. My church is handing out bags of groceries and hot soup to people in town on Saturday evening while others are out getting candy. Its our way to be out there sharing the love of Jesus with others on this evening. Many in this town are struggling with being able to provide food for thier families at this time so we are hoping to bless many during this. We met a gentleman during the collection time that is struggling himself financially and is battling cancer however he still gave a couple cans! God is so awesome and we are going to stop back by and take him some groceries to help him out this week:) Also we are all praying for him as he is alone so hopefully we will really be able to help him out in times coming.
It has been a good week for homeschooling we are trying out the Mystery of history for history/creation study and the kids can both do this mostly together so it is seeming to be working. Math I am flucuating between the computer lessons and worksheets to reinforce things. Language arts is an area I havent fully decided what I am doing I think we will finish up the First Language lessons for the Well trained mind 4th level and then go from there with the computer maybe and supplement worksheets. Science...mmmmm well I am working on this the past week for science we built a slinky brand electric motor that I picked up at Bi-mart and also little prince worked in the Garage on Dad's day off giving my suburban a tune-up! Auto shop science this week:) And we studied liquids/solids when we made cookies so we are learning and living. I love that about homeschool. This week I am going to work on getting a better schedule in place and getting things flowing smoothly. I dont feel nearly as flustered since I gave myself permission to find something else since what we thought would work wasn't I think I stressed out more because of that but after all the emails I recieved and reading some things I realized just because I thought i would work and paid money for it doesnt mean I have to fight with it all year when Its not completely working...try something else! What a concept! I want learning to be fun not a struggle at this age now when we get to high-school there will be just buckle down and do it but if we have some fun now maybe it wont be such a fight then. We are going to do a lapbook on the moon for science this week. My main goal this week is to keep learning going, have some fun, and then get a plan laid out on paper for subject goals for the rest of the year. Have a great day all I will try and post more regularly now that I am feeling better:) God bless!

Regrouping and getting back to it this next week

Hi all, I realized when Candy commented I haven't updated since Monday...aaahh
Well I took this week completely off from homeschool except for some science activities/club we had and basic reading with the kids. Another homeschool mom suggested a brief break while we figure out what may work and to just recharge our batteries. It has been good I have done a bunch of reading, talking with other homeschool moms in our area we have a great Christian Homeschool group of ladies here and then just letting the kids be kids this week. I have not officially figured out what will work but I am going to start next week with more reading actual books, we will continue to use the computer software for math as that is working so if thats not broken we wont fix that lol... and then for history my friend has loaned me the Mystery of History book 1. I think this may be good but we will have to see after I go through some of the lessons. what I may end up doing is using the outline of lessons offered in the computer programs as a lesson planning guide and get books out that deal with those topics... I am still a bit confused as you can probably tell but I am trying first and foremost to enjoy my precious angels and take it a day at a time. If it takes me 2-3 weeks to really figure out how this will work what will happen, no one is going to take away my birthday! LOL...at least not yet....thats a whole other post see Parentalrights.org post for that LOL well I am off to make a dinner for my wonderful hubby's homecoming from work in about an hour and get laundry all put away:) Take care and have a blessed Sunday tomorrow I will post more after my Monday and see how it goes...Thanks for all the support:)

Frustration!

Hi everyone,
I write today in hope that expressing my frustration will enlighten a solution. We have been using a computer program and I absolutely love it for homeschool however what I love is not important as what my son's learning. He is not good at independent study and I struggle to be involved with it as it is not lessons I planned so I am going back through the well-trained mind and my printouts on teaching the trivium I think he did so much better at this. Now the math program on the computer is really working well so I will stick with that however what do you all do for History, Bible and science. I used the Well-trained mind language program last year and it worked however we got it late in the year and did not finished so I think we will resume that. My son learns best from me reading with him, and from reading aloud together and things he can participate in. I want to find something that involves little princess too when she has the patience to sit still, worksheets work well. I need to get more organized as this is 5th grade year for him and pre-k kindergarten for her. Can you tell I am stressed and unfocused today so we finished our history for today and are taking the rest of the day off to regroup any suggestions... I think a packaged curriculum is not working for us so those of you that use a bit of everything or parts of some curriculum how do you organize your lessons, stay on track and make sure you get everything the state needs while keeping the kids on track and learning fun... I dont want the fights anymore I want learning to be fun for them and me:) they are smart kids I just need to find what works. this is only our second year homeschooling and starting after public school has been a challenge. Thanks for any input you can share.

I love Saturday's

Today we are just lounging around this morning, thats not to say we won't get anything done but on Saturday mornings we are really low key and laid back. Every other day of the week we have to get ready to do something(school work) or go somewhere for groceries or field trips that we do with the local homeschool group and On Sunday we get ready to go and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ so it is a busy morning getting out the door. So I realized last week that Saturdays really are our only down day when nothing is required. So I let the kids enjoy their morning with whatever they would like right now they are playing lego's nicely together...you know one of the benefits that I have seen from homeschooling is my kids really are best friends. Its awesome. At first it was a struggle when I brought ds home from School a year and a half ago but now he has transformed into the kid he always was in the summer with her but now it is full time and that is the boy I always new was there, a loving thoughtful young man. Not saying that boy didnt exsist in school but I definitley saw the influence of some of the less Godly boys lets put it that way. And dd just so looks up to her big brother it is beautiful to know she will always have someone watching out for her:)
So anyway today we do have to get some laundry finished and clean up a bit so that tomorrow is about enjoying the Lord and not trying to clean up as well as it is my week to provide snack for fellowship time so I will be making about 10 Doz cookies probably Choc. Chip as that is what I have enough supplies for or maybe 1/2 sugar 1/2 choc we shall see....well off I go have a blessed weekend everyone:)

Book Review

Hi everyone,
A couple weeks ago I signed up to be a book reviewing blogger with Thomas Nelson.(see squares on my blog if you are interested in signing up)

I just finished The Busy People's Fast and Frugal Cookbook

I really enjoyed some of the tips in the beginning of this cookbook. Most of them were pretty basic that anyone who has been living frugally will be familiar with however if you are just finding yourself needing to be frugal due to the economy, job loss or what have you then this section will teach you important tips of the trade. Also new wives and young women could benefit from this when learning how to manage a house grocery bill. The recipe's in it use a lot of fat free ingredients which I do not stock however can be made with the regular version of said ingredient just as easily however you will loose some of the low cal/ low salt/ low cholesterol if you do so. The recipe pages were nice because the include on the side bar a complete grocery list for everything you need to make the recipe broken down into grocery store sections so you can easily make a menu for a week and then go page by page as you make your produce, poultry, dairy and packaged item grocery list. Also it has suggestions for making it a complete meal with a side dish on most recipes.
Overall I recommend this cookbook for busy moms, and busy people everywhere. I think the recipe's in them are simple enough to try (some cookbooks make it so complicated even on fast recipes that we dont even try them) and also they are tasty for the whole family. As well as if you need the low cal, low cholesterol and such this is a great speedy cookbook for those in need of that! Great cookbook:)