We haven't disappeared...

I've been horrible, once again, at keeping up this blog.  It seems that homeschooling the children keeps me a little busier than before.  But really that's a horrible excuse, because I was barely blogging then either.

I do have a few excuses though.

I was asked to work the next Women's Cursillo weekend.  I was super excited, except for that part of having to give a talk!  One of my top three fears is speaking in public, and the fear is tripled when I have to talk about something personal.  I put off working on my talk until literally a week before I had to turn it in.  And then I prayed, a lot, for some help.  I so wish I could share it with you all!  I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and I truly can't wait to share it with the 32 women who will be making the weekend.  Did I mention that one of my dearest friends and my MOTHER-IN-LAW will be there?  I'm so excited!

We've been busy, busy homeschooling.  I've been pretty good at keeping up with our lesson plans and not getting too off track.  Our little homeschooling group has kept it's word of doing a weekly field trip.  A couple weeks ago we visited the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center.  Zep has become so intrigued with dinosaurs lately and SUE was on exhibit there.  It was a wonderful trip, and the kids had a blast!

So my lack of posts is definitely not from lack of adventures!  This blog of mine and I will be able to find some time again someday!

"Not" Back To School Blog Hop: School Room Week

It's time once again for more blog hopping with Heart of the Matter!  This week she has us all focusing on the room we'll be schooling in.  I sort of chuckle at that, because I'm almost positive that we'll be schooling just about everywhere.  Zep and I prefer to kick our legs up on the living room coffee table to do his work.  And I'm longing for the days when cooler weather heads our way, so we can throw out a blanket in the backyard and do our assignments in the beautiful outdoors!

But...I did prepare a room!  Let me just say, I LOVE IKEA!  For a cheap fix for any room it's the way to go.  We started organizing this room back in May and it finally was complete this week.  I'm excited to show it to you all...

The wall of IKEA shelving...

I'm still trying to figure out how I need to organize everything.  I suppose that once I have a little more experience I'll get a system down.  For right now I have each of the kids books grouped together.  I took an area for myself.  And, of course, all shelves within the reach of the babe are dedicated to her toys!  The boys have desks together, and I put a smaller table by the windows for days that Sunshine feels compelled to eat color with crayons!  :)

The bookcases are from the Billy collection at IKEA.  They even sell doors for the shelves that cost about $10 each.  You can see the one I bought on the far left.  The desks are also from IKEA.  Each desk cost $10.  They're pretty sturdy for being so cheap.  They're a bit tall, so you'll either have to buy adjustable chairs or look into the adjustable legs for the table instead of the ones I have pictured here.  Lastly, the chairs are also IKEA, but I don't suggest those.

My desk area...

I've had these desks forever!  They were my daddy's and now they'll be used to homeschool my children.  This is also were the computer area will be.  Hubby got me the awesome cork board; I repaid him by hanging it myself!

Supplies...

These are the greatest gadgets ever!  We've got all of our colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, scissors, etc in these two little hangie thingies.  They're fantastic!  FYI:  To buy said hangie thingies see IKEA's kitchen organization section.

And that's it!  I absolutely love this room now.  It has changed images multiple times over the last years and this is by far my favorite look.  I'm counting down the days till I'm able to ring our school bell and get our first day started!

Not Back-To-School Blog Hop: 2011-2012 Curriculum

I just love taking part in blog hops!  I've already posted our first-year curriculum, but I have to do it one more time to take part in this newest hop!  Thanks to Heart of the Matter for hosting.

Getting to this final list was a big ol' pain in the rear end.  Being new to the homeschooling world, I was very confused with all the choices that were out there for curriculum.  I must have changed my mind a bazillion times.  It finally came to a point where I had to just say, "That's it!" and write down the final curriculum in red ink.  I'm super excited with our choices, and I'm counting down the days until we start this wild ride!

And here is what our final list looks like:

*This is only for Zep, who will be entering first grade.  Bright Eyes will be in 4K, so he will mostly be just hanging out with us and/or Sunshine.

Language Arts

• Literature (Tales/Fables/Classics/Poetry) - We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan.
• Writing - Writing With Ease Level 1
• Grammar - First Language Lessons Level 1 & Language of God Level A
• Phonics - Little Angel Readers B,C, & D
• Handwriting - Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics
• Read aloud and silent reading - First Grade Faith and Freedom Readers & Scholastic Level 1 & & 2 books.

Math

• Saxon Math 1

History

• Story of the World: Volume 1

Religion

• We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan for religion.
• Hubby is going to teach the kids an extra amount of catechism in the evening after dinner from The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Science

• Noeo Science: Biology I

Geography

• Maps, Charts, and Graphs Level A

Art Appreciation

• Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It's A Renoir! Intermediate

Music

• Piano lessons given by the famous pianist, ME!  Yeah right, I'm just hoping I can teach him to read music!!
• 36 Traditional Catholic Hymns and several other classical pieces that we'll listen to before bed each night.

And that's it folks!!!  After months and months of struggling with what to do next year...this is it!  Am I expecting it to go as wonderfully as my mind is dreaming it...absolutely not!!  I'm pretty sure we'll be doing a lot of shifting as the year goes on.  I'm not a teacher, but I love my children.  And maybe, just maybe we'll learn to love to learn together!!!

Sunshine - 5 month stats

Weight - 22.6 lbs

Height - 31.5 inches

Head - 18.5 inches

June 16th, 2011

The "Modified" Homeschool Mother's Journey...v2...The one where I talk about our 2011-2012 curriculum

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey. She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!  And she's even doing a Summer Edition now!! 

In our homeschool this week next year...

I honestly feel sorry for the people that had to counsel me during my curriculum research.  My personality type tends to be more towards the "let's jump on the first train riding by" rather than "let's wait awhile and make sure it's the right train first."  As soon as I was certain homeschooling was for our family, I wanted everything done; the books bought, the schoolroom put together, the lesson plan in order.  It took a lot of prayer and a lot of guidance from some experienced homeschooling mommies to calm me down and rethink the train our family would be boarding.  I definitely rode a few on the way though...the Seton train, the Well-Trained Mind train, the Mother of Divine Grace train, the Catholic Heritage Curricula train, the Mater Amabilis train.

And here is where these trains finally dropped us off..

*This is only for Zep, who will be entering first grade.  Bright Eyes will be in 4K, so he will mostly be just hanging out with us and/or Sunshine.

Language Arts

• Literature (Tales/Fables/Classics/Poetry) - We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan.
• Writing - Writing With Ease Level 1
• Grammar - First Language Lessons Level 1 & Language of God Level A
• Phonics - Little Angel Readers B,C, & D
• Handwriting - Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics
• Read aloud and silent reading - First Grade Faith and Freedom Readers & Scholastic Level 1 & & 2 books.

Math

• Saxon Math 1

History

• Story of the World: Volume 1

Religion

• We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan for religion.
• Hubby is going to teach the kids an extra amount of catechism in the evening after dinner from The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Science

• Noeo Science: Biology I

Geography

• Maps, Charts, and Graphs Level A

Art Appreciation

• Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It's A Renoir! Intermediate

Music

• Piano lessons given by the famous pianist, ME!  Yeah right, I'm just hoping I can teach him to read music!!
• 36 Traditional Catholic Hymns and several other classical pieces that we'll listen to before bed each night.

And that's it folks!!!  After months and months of struggling with what to do next year...this is it!  Am I expecting it to go as wonderfully as my mind is dreaming it...absolutely not!!  I'm pretty sure we'll be doing a lot of shifting as the year goes on.  I'm not a teacher, but I love my children.  And maybe, just maybe we'll learn to love to learn together!!!

Small Successes v2

Join Sherry over at Chocolate For Your Brain for this week's Small Successes link-up!!!

When I sat down to review my week, I had a hard time thinking of things to list as successes.  Really, this week has been a big ol' pile of you-know-what for me!  I'm overly emotional and just plain tired!

I think I had this beautiful vision of how this summer was going to go, and so far (week two) it's not living up to that!  So...guess what folks...next week I'm changing that.  We're taking the week off!!  The only thing on my schedule is an orthopedic appointment and our monthly Confraternity of Christian Mother's Mass.  Beyond these and grocery shopping, we will be doing NOTHING!!!  Nothing, that is, except for what is on my very detailed daily schedule.  The schedule that I love.  The schedule that allows me time to play with my kids and sit for an hour in the afternoon and just breath.  I complained so often about the hustle and bustle of the school year and here I've gone and just transferred it to our summer!  So to my friends...if I don't answer the phone or return your email...it's because I've declared next week OUR time!  We'll chat and hang out soon, I promise!  I just need to regroup!

And here are the successes I was able to pry out of my brain...

• We now have 24 meals cooked and frozen in the freezer!!  Can I tell you how freeing it is to just quickly heat up something 10 minutes before hubby is due to arrive home??  It's absolutely amazing!! 
• I vacuumed and mopped the downstairs floor!!  I was feeling pretty good about that until about 50 kids ran through the house full of mud and sand.  Oh well, so is the life of a stay-at-home mom.
• I finished a wonderful book titled Following Mary to Jesus.  I really recommend it to anyone who's looking for an easy read.  I have a strong devotion to Mary.  I often ask her to intercede in prayer for me when I need something especially important.  When I'm sick or can't sleep, I often envision her in the room with me lying her hand on my head to comfort me or placing her beautiful blue shawl over me for warmth.  The book did a wonderful job explaining how through Mary we are able to know her Son even more.  For who knew Jesus better than his own mother??   

If you'd like to toot your horn a bit too, join the link-up over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journey...v1

I'm becoming slightly addicted to the blogging world of link-ups and memes (pronounced like dreams).  I love that they give me a place to start when it comes to writing.  Although, I'm pretty good at spitting out enough words (notice I didn't say good words) to fill a blog space, I'm horrible when it comes to thinking of fresh ideas. 

I came across The Homeschool Mother's Journey meme on one of the 5 billion homeschool blogs I follow.  And since "real" school has officially ended, I've decided to start calling myself a homeschooling mommy.  It's my school and I can call myself what I want to!  :)   In my defense, we have been doing some schoolwork, so I am technically teaching!

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey.  She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!

 

In my life this week…

We're trying to settle into a summer groove.  This week has been a bad example of how weeks to come will go.  Tuesday was truly the only uneventful day we had.  The rest of the week we had some friends come over to play, I was finally able to take Bright Eyes to have his speech evaluated (he passed!), and then we had family in town for an evening.  I'm truly hoping that next week is more of a "normal" week, and we'll be able to get on schedule.

In our homeschool this week…

We're focusing this summer on math and reading...especially on reading.  If you know me even a little, you know that I'm ridiculous when it comes to planning.  The summer schedule is a pretty crazy example of that.  It's color coded and time stamped!  I'm insane, I know!  But so far, so good!  The boys alternated between working with me on their bookwork and doing their lessons on the computer.  And our sweet Sunshine was very sweet to us and slept until 9 each morning allowing us lots of time to finish things!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This question stinks!!  Today, I should be lounging poolside with my best friend enjoying her husband's famous mojitos.  But, I'm too chicken to be too far from the hospital in case Bright Eyes has a relapse, so here I sit...on my couch!  I guess it turned out okay, because Sunshine has come down with some sort of illness and keeps spiking a fever.  That would have been zero fun at the beach.  We did have some special visitors yesterday and today...Gramma, Bop-Bop, and Aunt C!

My favorite thing this week was…

Ultreya!  Without question....have YOU thought about going on a Cursillo weekend?????

What’s working/not working for us…

I'm absolutely loving Saxon math.  The meeting is wonderful!  I was surprised to find that Zep really didn't understand the whole month/year/date thing.  The rest of the lesson is incredibly easy, so I'm really glad we're beginning it early.  Hopefully, by the time we start learning new material it'll be just about time to kick-off the new school year.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Poor Bop-Bop thought he was going out to enjoy some quiet time with his newspaper and coffee!!  Two little boys thought it would be fun to follow suit!