Day 17: No tears.

As much as I absolutely adore this little boy, the past 11 months have been a little rough.  He just cries so much.  We are to the point that I don't care what mess he is making, as long as tears aren't being shed.  Those are blissful moments!

Day 14: Best friends

You know, a life without a best friend is a hard one.  Seriously.  I lived it and it brought me to my knees.    I was surrounded by an awesome group of mothers in NC and the move back to Texas was a rough transition.  We got involved in some things, but I wasn't finding anyone to become fast friends with.  I prayed.  And cried.  And prayed some more.  Then the Lord placed the coolest person in my life.

Jenni is another homeschooling mom in my area.  She sent out an email to the neighborhood mother's group looking for other homeschooling families about a year and a half ago, right in the midst of my deep prayers.  What are the chances, right?  She has the sweetest 4 year old son, Joshua, and a little girly girl of a 2 year old, Gracie.  We have the best conversations and I always fulfill my laughter quota with her.  Did I mention she is way cool?  Our children have a soft spot for each other, as well...

Day 8: Our backyard swing set

The first year and a half we lived in this house, I didn't think anything of our backyard.  It was blah and I didn't think there was much we could do to help it.  We slowly started replacing some of the previous owners decor out there, added some potted plants, and built a swing set.  I have been amazed at the little sanctuary it has become.  We have so much fun playing out back now and we are out there multiple times every day.  I am so thankful for the great memories that are being built and the sweet pictures opportunities it provides!

Day 4: Sweet Baby James

Oh, sweet baby James.  How I love this boy!  Every day I stare at him in awe because I truly didn't think we would ever have any boys.  I prayed for this little boy for over two years and, sure enough, the Lord gave me what I asked.  10+ months in, and I still can't believe he is actually mine!  He has been such a blessing to this family and I cannot wait to see him become a stronger part of it.  And he definitely has a sweet spot for his mommy -- he loves my kisses and just resting his head against me.  I am very much enjoying having a little cuddler.  Plus, it is nice to bring in some cars and dinosaurs and lots of the color blue.


I need to start praying diligently, again, for a brother!

Day 3: Crafts!

My two girls LOVE craft time.  I was always immersed in some craft project growing up and I love that they take interest in this, as well.  I am definitely in my element with them.

I am not quite sure how to play with trains and cars, but I am guessing I will learn.

30 Days of Thankfulness

First, I had this brilliant idea.

When I got sick of taking pictures of food with a new baby squealing in the background, I started this current blog, which began as a way to keep our family up-to-date on our adventures in North Carolina.

Then remember when this turned into a homeschooling blog for about 4 weeks?  Ha!  I soon realized I was missing out on enjoying the adventure that is homeschooling because I was trying to snap pictures of everything we did.

Well, the new latest and greatest consists of me trying my hand at photography.  Now, I am just starting out and there is a lot of room for growth, but I am excited to see where this goes.

I know the best way to grow is to play, play, play.  Although I am a day late, I wanted to jump in on 30 Days of Thankfulness series that is floating around on the Internet.

Day 2 - I am thankful for the privilege of being my children's teacher.

After church the other day, Emily informed me that she didn't like learning at church.  After inquiring as to why, she said, "Because I like learning more at home."

Coolness

I am still in the process of getting our schoolroom together, so in the meantime...

Going into Costo...

Going out of Costo...

It is good to know that having chocolate on your face does not diminish you cool factor.

2012-2013 Curriculum

Did yall get nervous I wasn't coming back, again?

We have been going non-stop this past week.  My mom came in last weekend to watch the girls while I went to our state homeschooling conference and for a Rice event that Daniel had Friday evening.  She stayed until Monday and we went to the downtown aquarium to celebrate her retirement and school starting for both Daniel and the girls.  I was planning on starting school this week, but I was enjoying my mom's company and didn't get anything done over the weekend.  I debated about starting next week, but I decided just to bite the bullet and go.  Really, everything has been open and go, so I haven't had any issues.  I really just missed the mental build-up that I was planning.  Lame, right?

The homeschooling conference is always exciting -- a lot of great speakers and more curriculum displays than you ever want to see.  I took James with me, and he sort of kept me from truly enjoying everything I could the one day I was there, but I was asking a lot from him.  I listened to two audio lectures on the way to and from, and after everything was said and done, I got more out of the CD's than the actual conference.  They were just that amazing, though.  In case you are wondering, it was this and this.  Seriously amazing.  I borrowed them, but I want to own the whole set myself to listen to again and again and again.

Now for what nobody has been looking forward except me -- the 4th Annual "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop.  (Maybe when this whole blog hop is done, I will have more people reading my blog than just my mom.)

(I just want to say that I figured out how to get that icon centered.  It's amazing how quickly your computer skills disappear when you spend all day changing diapers.)

Bible: This is the most important in our book.  At the core of our decision to homeschool is our desire to train up our children.  This year we will be going through a character study, using Kids of Integrity.  So much is packed into this curriculum and I am excited about it working in my faith walk, as well.

All About Spelling:  I first heard about AAS before we even started homeschooling.  I was planning on using it when Emily got into 1st grade, but I started to realize we could use it now given Emily's reading level.  I was thinking it might be too much, but a couple of days before it arrived, she started walking around the house spelling words.  At the core, it is a phonics program.  I want her to really know all the phonics rules, since this was not a part of my education back in the day.  She already has learned so much!  I love that the program is multi-sensory, so it works for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners.  Our lessons have been very short and enjoyable, and I can't wait to get deeper in this program

RightStart Math - I researched tons of programs, and as another visual, auditory, and hands-on program, I thought this would be a good for for a 4 year old.  Once she had 1-10 cemented, I wasn't sure where to go next.  I knew I didn't want my children to just memorize their numbers.  Obviously, kids have no problem memorizing -- you see an 18 month old who can sing their abc's, but does that child truly know what "r" is?  The RightStart program is based on Asian math and seems to build a strong foundation.  And I will be honest, I even count on my fingers sometimes.  Hopefully I can give my children more.

A Reason for Handwriting - I picked this program because it matches my own style of handwriting and the children practice writing Scripture at the higher levels.  Working through the Kindergarten level, kids just practice a single letter each time.  Despite being able to print something off for free online somewhere, it has a sweet animal picture on the other side that I let Emily watercolor.  She loves getting to paint her picture, so this is the only reason I don't feel this was a waste of money.  Verse work starts in the next level, so it will be more beneficial then.

The Way They See It - Emily is very artistic.  This has been her passion since she turned a year old.  I'm not saying she is amazing, or anything, but even at 18 months, she would spend an hours coloring each day.  I want to be able to develop this in whatever way I can.  I bought The Way They See It and think it will be a great fit.  It goes through different art techniques and also uses real world examples to point out artistic ideas, all while being geared specifically for 3-5 year olds.  We haven't used this yet, because I know I have to mentally prep myself for a mess, especially when I have a certain 2 year old who does not like being left out.

Geography - So, I don't know where this all started, but Emily sometimes draws maps in her spare time.  

Do you see the streets, buildings (dark blobs), and the airplanes (the crosses in the middle of the right side)?

I decided to buy Beginning Geography and do a couple pages each week.  We are also doing a country study which just consists of read-alouds each week from a different country.  The only thing I want her to grasp by the end of the year is that not everybody lives like we do and we are so blessed to have everything the Lord has graciously given us.

Science - I bought the First Encyclopedia of Science, which has a different topic on each two-page spread.  Each week we will be covering a different topic and checking out extra read-alouds from the library on that topic.  My main goal here is just exposure.  It gives me some sort of game plan, otherwise we just keep checking out the same type of books from the library.

As far as Olivia goes, I have some easy activities planned for her from Pinterest.  Oh, Pinterest, what would I do without you?  There really are some brilliant things I would have never thought about.

This is the core of what we will be doing this year.  I'm excited to be using stuff that already came pre-packaged (for the most part) this year.  Last year, I spent almost as much time printing and laminating everything than we did actually using the materials.  Although, when I pull it all out for Olivia, I shouldn't have to do anything :)

Well, that is it for now.  Next week... our school room.

Our water baby

Today was a HUGE day!  Not only did Ted Cruz win the Republican Senate race, and the US win a gold medal in women's gymnastic, but my Emily learned to swim!  

This is quite amazing given the couple times we make it to the pool each summer.  I hate to admit this, but this is only the second time we have been the whole summer.  Apparently, having our cousins in town visiting from Chicago was key.

Earlier in the summer she would only go in the big pool with floaties on and she freaked out the whole time.  She was clinging on to us for dear life.  We were not surprised -- that is her M.O.  She is not our risk taker, which I am thankful for a lot!  Today, Emily went to the pool around noon with our cousins (and Aunt Mary Jo).  After Olivia and James' nap, we met up with them.  She was no where close to the same kid when we got there.  She was doing all kinds of crazy things water babies do -- not my Emily Grace.  I don't know what happened, but I am so excited for her.  She is growing up.  Tear.

I would say we need to start going to the pool more, but now that I have a child who has no fear of the water, I have a separate problem on my hands.

We're back!

You all thought I had disappeared, right?

It's a new school year and the momentum is gaining for all things.  I thought I should check in and give a wrap-up of last year and tell you about some new things we are doing.  Plus, I think I might participate in the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop.  You can't really start a blog hop after months and months of silence.

Last year I loved looking at all the wonderful blogs that linked to the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop.  It is four weeks of curriculum posts, school room pictures, student photos, and day-in-the-life posts.  I still don't feel too legit, given that my oldest is only 4, but when I stop thinking about her age and think about the level of work she is doing I totally have a right to participate.  Plus, this will give family and friends an idea of what we are doing over here.

I guess first, I should give an overview of last year.  Wow, did I learn a lot (and Emily, too!)  A couple things that stick out...

1. Do not plan the same thing for the entire year.  Your child will outgrow it.  (More on this later.)

2.  A child's learning is not a steady uphill climb.  This was such a crazy concept for me.  I guess I always assumed that you keep trucking along learning things.  Emily hit multiple walls and then would zoom way ahead faster than I knew it.

2. I need to control my frustration.  Things got a little rough in the beginning.  My only buy at last year's homeschooling convention was a book -- Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell.  I read it before school started and after only the first couple of weeks, I needed to read it again.  My biggest problem was that Emily was absorbing things rapidly, then she hit her first wall.  I grew frustrated.  Once I revisited some of the topics in the book, I shelved some things, and prayed for the Lord to change my spirit.  It was only a matter of weeks before Emily was asking for things that previously had brought tears (I know -- bad mom!)  Things had clicked somewhere and she was ready to advance.  This is when I came to the above mentioned point.  Once I understood that, road blocks weren't that big of a deal.

Although Emily LOVED last year, I often feel bad for what she went through in the beginning.  My husband's family refers to it as the lead buffalo theory.  It is always the first child that comes along and gets all the arrows.  The other children follow along, unscathed by first-round parenting mistakes.  I am glad we started when we did, though.  I have learned the necessary lessons, and it all happened before I added a third little terror angel to the mix.

So, how did the rest of the year go?

Last summer I planned out the whole fall.  We were going to do the first part of Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week curriculum.  Letters A-N were organized, printed, assigned days and time slots.  We would learn letter sounds, proper letter formation, and solidify numbers 1-10.  Along with this went a lot of fun crafts that were planned and TONS of read-alouds.

Well, we got into the first part of November and Emily claimed that she was bored.  She obviously knew her numbers and so the activities were not exciting anymore.  I don't know why I thought that she could do the exact same activity every week only with a new graphic on the page.  (Refer to point 1 of lessons learned.)  I also had started a reading program with her.  She amazed me at how quick she picked this up.  All of the sudden, simple letter activities were no match to reading real books.  How childish, she thought.  I had to revamp a lot of things.  Thank goodness I only planned for one semester.

We did a lot of light school the rest of the year, flying by the seam of our pants.  We pretty much focused on reading, proper letter formation, and child-led art projects.  This was part in response to a new little bundle that came our way and partly due our house flooding two weeks later.  Our house was turned upside down for over two months.  It was a struggle to just stay sane during this time.

I really just focused more on reading than everything else.  Obviously, reading is a foundational skill to just about everything else in life.  I knew Emily had a long attention span, loved looking at books and read-alouds, and was outgrowing nap times.  We will always have a quiet time in this house, so I figured that if she knew how to read, it would keep her busy for more than 5 minutes.  She has blown us out of the water.  She now has her nose in a book all day and Daniel and I are constantly amazed at what she is reading.  I have started checking out more difficult picture books in hopes that I can regain some read-aloud time with her.  It is always a fight, though, because she wants to read everything herself.  The other day she sounded out properly, "An ostentation of ostriches."  She literally picks up anything and reads it.  The program I used was a simple book -- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  I had heard a lot of people had success with introducing it to younger children, then a military friend who is a teaching specialist mentioned it to me (she uses it as remediation with students, I believe).  I went out and bought it that day and we haven't looked back.  The book is now retired on a shelf waiting for Olivia.  I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to teach reading to their child and I cannot wait to use it again!

Speaking of school... Today was Daniel's first day of his MBA program.  Crazy!  This week is immersion and he has class every day until 6pm, and then they work on group projects every evening.  It is 11:10pm and he still is not home.  I am so eager to hear how the day went!  The Lord has been doing some pretty incredible things in our family!

Alright, more to come later.  I can't wait to tell everyone about the exciting school year that is approaching.  And because I can't leave without some pictures, and I don't think James has even made an appearance on here, yet, I want to introduce you all to my newest obsession...