Off and Running!

We have now been back to school for just shy of 4 weeks. Each day has not been without it's struggles, but I'm very proud of the consistency we are displaying! At this rate, this may turn out to be one of our best school years yet.

I have to give a shout out to Mark Berg who runs the new math practice site that I've found for the kids. It is called Math Facts Pro and is only $5 per year for 5 students! Yes, you read that correctly. That's $1 per student. It is geared to teachers who have a class full of students but works great for homeschool moms. 

In fact, after some e-mail communication with Mark yesterday, he shared with me that his wife homeschools their children. Makes perfect sense! It seems that homeschoolers are the ones who usually have the ingenuity to invent such programs and then make it affordable for all.

Besides being affordable, I like the fact that this program, while going over the most basic of math facts, does not make my kids feel like they are being treated like babies.

I feel like I have FINALLY found a way to remediate my children's lack of math skills without having to hire a tutor or spend hours with each child going over flash cards!

We were using another online math facts practice program that was free. However I became frustrated with it after two weeks of the site being down. I decided that it was time to scrap that one and find something else. I'm so glad that I did because now we get to support another wonderful homeschool family while using a program that more perfectly suits our needs!

We are still using Time4Learning for Fashionista and RoboBoy. They are using it for Language Arts, Language Arts Extensions and Social Studies. RoboBoy still needs my assistance when he "does school" on the computer. He has a hard time focusing when there is a lot of text to be read. So I set aside time to sit and help him through it. We are both learning a lot. LOL

How is your school year starting out? How long have you been back? Have you realized that you need to make any changes in curriculum?

Planning for the New School Year

It has not been a fun week to be me! Well, it actually started over night Friday. During that night the headache I'd been fighting for nearly 2 weeks blossomed into a full blown migraine. The problem was that I didn't have any of my medication for it. Uuuugh! It was nearly 2 days and 3 nights of migraine pain off and on. When it was bad just turning my head made me feel dizzy and nauseous.

Times like that make me wonder why God allows me to endure such pain. I know He has a purpose for it. Haven't been able to figure it out yet, except that it allows me to appreciate the times when I feel good so much more.

Now that I'm feeling better, I have been working on more lesson planning. My goal is to start school back up August 19th and so far we seem to be on track for that. It's looking to be an interesting year.

ManBoy will be in 10th grade, Fashionista in 8th and RoboBoy in 7th. I am working to get all three kids back to grade level in math so this year we are focusing on some specific remedial math skills. We will also be placing great emphasis on cementing those math facts.

Here is a breakdown of the curriculum we will be using this year and which kids will be using each:

• "Exploring World History" by Ray Notgrass - ManBoy
  (This incorporates Language Arts, History and Bible in one curriculum)
• www.time4learning.com - Fashionista and RoboBoy
  (They will be doing Language Arts and Social Studies)
• "English from the Roots Up" - All three
• Key To Fractions Workbooks - All three
• Key To Decimals Workbooks - All three
• Answers in Genesis "The Astronomy Book" - All Three

Although ManBoy is now in high school, I'm not worrying too much about following the prescribed college prep courses with him. He has his heart set on becoming a baker and so that is where my focus is for him. I'd like to see him go to a trade school for that, but not at all sure what direction that will take. It would be nice if he could do some sort of internship with a cake decorator or something. His personal plan is to get a job at the local grocery store bakery as soon as he turns 16.

With Fashionista getting so close to entering high school, I'm beginning to think college prep for her. She has expressed interest in becoming a fantasy writer and already practices writing her own books. She hasn't totally made up her mind yet though. Whatever she chooses, I'm fairly certain that it will entail a college degree which means that now is the time to begin preparing for that.

RoboBoy is still in that blessed grace period before we have to begin seriously thinking about how to prepare for his future. He has declared that he wants to be an Explorer when he grows up. Not sure how he intends to make a living that way, but it does sound like fun!

I just finished updating and scheduling the chores each of my kids will have throughout the year. The Lord has convicted me lately about becoming so slack on teaching them good work habits. I'm just praying that He gives me the endurance and consistency I need to make this next school year a success.

What are your plans for the new school year? I'd love to hear about them! Also, please go check out the other blogs in this Blog Hop!

It's NOT You, It's Me

It's hard to believe that we are already nearing the last days of summer! Or at least of summer vacation. Having survived the past week of VBS, Fashionista has begun her last week of 5-day clubs for the summer. I'm frantically trying to pull together lesson plans in preparation for the looming school year. I knew this summer was going to be a whirlwind but I did not expect it to take the kind of toll on me that it has.

It seems that especially lately I'm finding myself feeling more ASPIE than normal. (For an explanation of what Aspie is you may want to read my former post, Hi, I'm Dee and I have Asperger's Syndrome) I'm feeling like I just want to climb up into myself and shut the rest of the world out. Perhaps this is a result of being forced out of my house and into the presence of people all summer long, which is something that I find absolutely exhausting. I think this weekend was the first time all summer that I was allowed to stay home and not have to go anywhere.

I guess I'm feeling depleted of I'm not even sure what. Opportunities for inner contemplation? That thing that I have to tap into which allows me to be social despite how unnaturally that comes to me? Whatever it is, I'm feeling totally drained of it. Even talking on the phone is feeling like a gigantic chore to me. 

Hopefully, the cessation of 5-day clubs and getting back into a school routine which will not require me to be out of the house and around people so much will help my Aspieness to retreat. In the meantime, I'm sorry to all of you who have been feeling like I'm mad at you for some reason. Try to remember that it's not you, it's me.

What To Do With All These Books?

Having finally finished updating my personal database for all our books, I've started listing them on Amazon. My goal was to be able to list them in bulk but after wrestling with making that happen for a whole day, I decided that it was easier to just deal with listing them one at a time. 

I got about 40 some books listed that way. This morning upon checking my email, I realized that one of my book had sold. Yay! Time to get it ready to ship. I have flat rate boxes, no problem. Oh, good grief! It costs more to ship that way than I charged for the book! Scrap that idea! Ok, so what are my other options??

A trip to the post office later and $1.49 spent on a padded mailer, then buying postage, I think I made a whole .48 cents on that book! Uuuuugh!! This is NOT going to be worth all the trouble I'm going to!

So what do I do with these 200+ books?? Trying to decide if it will even be worth my time to mark them all and attempt a yard sale. I'm having trouble getting to all that I need to get done as it is! I just want these books out of here! I may just take the whole lot to the Salvation Army and be done with the mess!

What are your thoughts??

Encouraging Progress in a Difficult Subject

This past week was July 4th so Fashionista had no 5-day clubs. It was nice to have a little respite from getting up so early every day and running around town playing chauffeur. This week we get to do it all again! Only this week Fashionista has afternoon clubs. This means that I don't have to leave the house so early to drop MyHero off. Fashionista doesn't have to be at the CEF office until noon.

We had our annual homeschool evaluations on Friday. I was quite nervous about these because we struggle with math. There was no need for me to be concerned however. All 3 kids made improvements in their scores over last year. ManBoy's score went up nearly 3 grade levels! We still have a long way to go, but I'm greatly encouraged by the progress made.

My kids are not liking it but I'm making them work on their math facts over the summer. They think that they know them, but it's always good to keep them fresh! We will be covering some new territory in math this coming school year so this will help them to be able to comprehend the new material more easily.

I'm starting to feel the pressure to get prepared for the new school year. Need to nail down what curriculum we will be using, I know most of it, but some is still up in the air. Also need to set up lesson plans and all that stuff. 

One of the things I plan to use this next year is, English From the Roots Up. It's an oldie but a goodie. I've had it sitting on my shelf for a while and rediscovered it while clearing off bookshelves. I think it is finally time to put it to work. It should help to improve spelling and vocabulary for my kids.

I would also like to get Fashionista enrolled in a class with www.time4writing.com. She loves to write fantasy books but needs a lot of help with her grammar and mechanics.

I still have all those books sitting in boxes in my kitchen as well! I have GOT to get them listed on Amazon. I'm feeling like my summer is filling up with too much to do and too little time to get it all done! I'd better get busy!

First a couple questions for you! We all as homeschoolers seem to have at least one subject that we struggle with. What subject is it for you and your kids? If you don't homeschool then what was your tough subject in school? How do you deal with this difficult subject? Have you found a way to make it less of a struggle?

Is it the weekend yet?

Oh, my! What a crazy week! Fashionista started her summer of 5-Day Clubs with CYIA, (Christian Youth In Action). I spent the week playing chauffeur to her and her dad. We have one vehicle and they both had to be in places across town from each other at the same time. I dropped MyHero off at work a bit early then scooted over to the CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) office to drop Fashionista off to head out with her team.

Fashionista and her team were at a local church all week. This next week they have no clubs due to the July 4th holiday. I have been working out and running almost every day this past week and would like to continue getting up early to do this in the coming week.

Speaking of working out and trying to loose weight...I think I've figured out why I went months working out like a maniac but not able to loose a single pound. I realized that I'm beginning the wonderful adventure of perimenopause. Along with that comes the tendency to gain and retain weight. So I decided to try one of those menopause symptom relief supplements. I'll have to let you know if it helps. Of course, I'm also recommitting to eating better. My new motto that I'm trying to keep in my head is, "You can't out exercise a bad diet."

What Have WE Been Up To??

I'm making it my goal to get back to blogging at least weekly. I'm amazed at how quickly I can get behind with my blog! Some updating is definitely in order. 

If you remember the post about the little stray dog I found and took in, he found a forever home. We were unable to keep him ourselves although I would have in a heartbeat. After much research I finally found a foster home for him. They had him for a few months and then decided that they wanted to make him part of their permanent family. 

I finally got those book shelves cleared as well! That was a LOT of work! Now the over 200 books are sitting in boxes waiting to be sold on Amazon. First I have to clean up my database so that I can do a mass listing on Amazon. That shouldn't take very long, once I get the time to do it. 

I did manage to get all the books we are keeping to fit into one shelf. That's a good thing because we needed the extra room for my sister and two aunts who came down from Arkansas to visit with us last week! We went to the beach pretty much every day they were here. 

This was the day we went to Tarpon Springs, home of the United States' largest Greek population and historic sponge docks. Mmmm!! Gyros!

On the heals of having my family visiting, I took Fashionista to her week of training with CYIA (Christian Youth In Action). She is spending the week in the dorms of a local Christian college learning how to tell kids about Jesus Christ. She had to send out support letters just like a missionary and is earning the title Junior Missionary.

I miss her terribly but know that she is in great hands with the staff of CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship). I'd better get used to it because we will not be seeing much of her this summer. She will be going out doing 5-day clubs for the remainder of the summer after her training is done.

In the meantime, the boys and I will be working to clean out their room and toss or give away all the junk...er ahem stuff they don't need or want. I will also be working to sell all those books and of course crocheting! I'll also have to carve out some time to do some homeschool planning for this upcoming school year.