Me & My Boy

Two years later...

2010-09-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple years since I wrote in this blog. Life got busy and I completely forgot about it. I've been thinking of starting another blog, thinking I had lost this one (I couldn't find the link). Today I found it, so I think I'll just keep it and begin from where I left off.

Of course, with there being a 2 year gap in the writing of this, my life has changed. Jamie is now 7 1/2 and we are not homeschooling anymore. This fall will mark the third year he has attended a local Christian school that I taught at for 2 years before I homeschooled him and where I am now working again. Actually, this year begins my third year since I've returned and fifth year overall. I am teaching middle school English and I absolutely love it! Jamie is in 3rd grade, made straight A's throughout the whole year in 2nd and hopefully is on his way to do the same this year.

Um...Also new in my life is that I moved out of my parent's house where I had previously been living since Jamie was born and we now have our own little 2 bedroom house within walking distance of the school. It is such a blessing. Since we are out on our own we are now the proud (and sometimes annoyed) owners of a 4 month old Beagle named Summer. She is a mess. Literally. She digs holes and wallows in them all day. She is a ball of energy!

Jamie began JBQ (Junior Bible Quiz) last week. Well, began for the season, but actually it's his third year. For the last 2 years he has been in Novice, but this year mark's his first year in Experience. If you are not sure what JBQ is, please google it. It is a fantastic Assemblies of God organization that helps kids memorize Bible facts and verses and mixes it with some healthy competition. We get to travel once a month for "meets" where the kids get to quiz other church teams. It's a lot of fun and Jamie has one of those crazy memorization brains, so he loves it. Plus, he's learning the most important things in life at the same time. Awesome.

Also, I just came back from a 2 weeks mission trip to Africa! More on that later, I'm done writing for now and I'm sure you're done reading.;-)

From the mouth of Jamie.

2007-11-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Jamie and I have a few T-shirts that match, so today I thought I would dress us alike for fun. This is what Jamie says to me:

"Hey mom! We have on the same shirt...AND the same pants (we were wearing jeans).....But you're wearing blue socks, and I have on white...AND our hair doesn't match, but our faces do!"

He's so goofy, I wasn't sure if he thinks we look a like or if he just meant that our skin is the same color?

And again, his birthday will be Monday and someone asked him how old he was going to be. He replied, "Five! A whole handful!". Yeah, I think he's been that for most of his life...;) But I thought it was cute, and HE thought of it.

I hope your Thanksgiving is going well, I'll try to post some pictures later.

So Smart!

2007-11-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

So guess what Jamie can do? Drumroll please....................
He can add! We started basic addition this week and he is picking up on it quite well. I know 1+1=2 is not rocket science, but I was excited to take that next step with him.:)
We are continuing our unit on Thanksgiving and I'm planning on wrapping that up tomorrow. I promised him an art project, so we'll see what I can find on Google.
On a different note, I'm debating whether or not to go hit the Black Friday sales or not. I might head out just to Walmart and pick up a few things, its hard to resist such good deals! Even though the crowds drive me crazy....:\
I'll be baking pie tomorrow for Thanksgiving, finish cleaning the house, and getting the table set early. I sort of dread holidays with my family (I know that's horrible) so I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly these next few days.

Hey Turkey!

2007-11-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is on its way! In homeschooling news, I am using a teacher's resource book called "Land I Love", that teaches kid-friendly history. I've been teaching Jamie about Thanksgiving this month, and its been a lot of fun. He's looked at maps and globes to chart the Pilgrims journey, he's colored papers of Pilgrims, he's made a construction paper recreation of the Mayflower (picture to come), and I *think* he understands the concept of why the Pilgrims came to America. Even though, when watching a commercial for the movie "Madagascar", it mentioned that the island was off the coast of Africa, and Jamie turns to me and says, "Mom, that's where the Pilgrims came from!" Hmmm, not quite son, but thanks for trying!:) This week we'll tackle the reason they had Thanksgiving and the help the Indians gave the settlers. I'm a little irritated that in this resource book they show a picture of "savages" (mean looking ugly creatures) for the kids to color, when I will be teaching Jamie, that although some Indians attacked the settlers, that they did so to protect their own people, and that the Indians were around first. And also, that the settlers brought diseases that killed a good number of Indians. I know that in most public and even private schools that children are being taught that the Indians were savage and scalped the Pilgrims and were basically "enemies" from day 1. but I don't want Jamie to go into learning about this without thinking from both sides of the situation. The joy of homeschooling, is that I can teach him the views that I think are correct.
In other news my Ebay journey has proved very fruitful and I am excited to have some extra spending money for the holidays! I also found an item for Jamie at Target yesterday that has not been at ANY store, and has been sold out online. It was selling for upwards to $25 + shipping on Ebay and I got it for $14.99. I was thrilled with the find.:)
I hope that whoever is reading this has a wonderful Thanksgiving week, full of family, friends, great food, and some relaxation!

I love kitties.

2007-11-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today was a normal day for us. Did some school with Jamie this morning, did some "me" school on the computer after lunch. I took Jamie for a walk this afternoon (in the lovely 50ish fall weather) and we were met by the scrawniest (but adorable!) little kitten. He/she saw us coming and ran right up to Jamie and rubbed on him, purring, and being so darn cute! We stopped to pet him and he acted so happy to see us. He had half a tail, it made him even cuter. If anyone who reads this knows me at all, then you will know that I am a sucker for animals, especially for scrawny sorry looking ones.;) But alas, this kitten had a collar and I believe it belonged to the folks in the house we were standing in front of. There was also a grey kitten with a collar pouncing around the front yard, but it wasn't as friendly as our little guy. Jamie wanted to bring him home, but of course I said we couldn't and pointed out the collar (BTW-if it didn't have one, we SO would have taken it home). Jamie understood and we continued on our walk. Tomorrow is cleaning/laundry day, oh the thrill! I'm going to look through my closet and try to put some stuff up on eBay to get some Christmas money coming in. I have about 4-5 formal dresses (between weddings and high school dances) that I'm going to try to sell. I hope they do. And we might have a garage sale next weekend. So I can maybe make some money off of that.:) Jamie's 5th birthday is only 16 days away!

DENTIST PRAISE REPORT!

2007-11-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

So if you read my post from the other day, you know about Jamie's cavity. Well, I got some numbers from some pediatric and family dentists in some Big Towns about an hour away. I called the first one and they said AGAIN, "No, we're taking any new patient's with that insurance right now." Ask politely, "When do you think you WILL be taking them?" The snooty girl replied "Probably never."

I was so frustrated. I looked at the next number and said, "Lord, you know I need a dentist for Jamie, please provide me one." I pick up the phone and dial. Again, I ask if they take ______ insurance, totally expecting a letdown, but instead the receptionist says, "Actually we're not, but an associate of ours is. What is your son's name?" And just like that, we have an appointment for next Tuesday!!!!!!!! I am so thrilled. I told the receptionist that I had called 14 other dentists and this was the only one that accepts this insurance. She said she didn't doubt it. I said "thank you Lord!" and called up my Nana to see if she would go with me, and she will.:) And the sort of nice/sad part is, is that Jamie is so excited too, lol. His tooth has been REALLY bothering him lately, so he just wants to get it taken care of.

I just wanted to share that with ya'll. It's the little miracles (at least this felt like one to me) that helps my faith be restored and refreshed.:)

Interesting Sites.

2007-11-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

I was looking up worksheets for Jamie today to help to reinforce his "silent e" skils and long vowel sounds and found these 2 really helpful sites:

1. PhonicsWorld.com.

2. Free Phonics Worksheets.

2007-11-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post pictures from Halloween. Jamie was "The Thing" for Boo at the Zoo, and he was "Batman" on Halloween night. He LOVES to dress up! The shoes he has on for "The Thing" we borrowed from my little brother. They make rock crushing sounds as he walked. So cool.;)

Lazy Sunday and nurse phone tag.

2007-11-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Hello! What a week! My normal, slow-paced, boring life sped up to 100 mph, and I'm finally catching myself back up. I fell behind in my online college coursework when Katie was here, so I've been scrambling to finish it before midnight tonight. I just got done. Yay!
Jamie is under the weather a bit. I played phone tag with the doctor's office on Thursday, and finally had the nurse say that she would call in an antibiotic to the drug store. I called the drug store and they never recieved a call from the nurse. Hmmm. I called the nurse back and left a message. She never called me back or called in the prescription. Doctor's office and pharmancy closed at 5 pm. Friday morning I call the doctor's office again and left 4 messages with 2 different nurses. NO ONE calls me back. I repeatedly call the pharmacy to see if they had gotten a call yet. They hadn't. At 4 pm, I had a revelation, and on a hunch, I called the OTHER pharmacy in town, the one I DON'T use. They've had the prescription since Thursday morning, wondering who Jamie was, because he wasn't in their system and had no phone number to call me. So I go to that pharmacy and wait 30 minutes for them to enter in his insurance information and fill the prescription. And so finally, Friday night, Jamie got started on some antibiotics, and he is feeling much better.:)
Also, Jamie has a cavity. It is uncomfortable for him. But I have called EVERY dentist in a 20 mile radius and NO ONE will take his insurance. Sigh. So I will have to start calling dentist's in Big Town and see if they'll take him. I hope they will. He wakes up every morning and asks me if he gets to go to the dentist today. Can you tell that he's never been before? LOL:)
My mom had the game Scrabble Jr., and me and Jamie played it today. He caught on pretty well, and I think it really does help his vocabulary. And we tied our scores so he was happy (have I mentioned he's a sore loser?).
So off I go to relax and enjoy my stay at home Sunday afternoon...

Oh, and the picture is of him eating a Warhead. I TOLD him they were very sour and that he probably wouldn't like it, but he wanted to try it anyway...

Pictures!

2007-10-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Jamie's finished pumpkin.

My finished pumpkin.

Look! My pumpkin is crying!

Jamie's not too sure of the goopy feeling.

Me and Katie (we're twins BTW).

Jamie with his Fall wreath.

Fall has arrived!

2007-10-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgotten about my blog! I've just been busy the past few days. We had our first annual Boo at the Zoo at our small town park/zoo/Chamber of Commerce. Jamie dressed up as "The Thing" from Fantastic Four and had a really good time. Also, my sister Katie has come up here to visit for a week, so I've been busy hanging out with her and having a great time.:) Jamie did finish his fall wreath, and we carved pumpkins today. He had a wonderful time. I will post pictures later on. This week I have a lot going on. Tomorrow is school all day for both Jamie and I, Tuesday is my first day with my tutoring job and also Jamie's last soccer game, Wednesday is of course Halloween and all that entales, Thursday we head to Big Town with Katie to get Jamie's 5-year-old birthday pictures taken, and to hit after-Halloween sales. Friday I drive the 5-hour roundtrip to drop Katie off at the airport, and Saturday, hopefully, I can just chill!:) That's my week in a nutshell. Check back to see how it turns out.
Oh, and today was our first real day of FALL weather!!! Yay!! It was in the 60s all day and about 55 right now!

Is Fall REALLY in the air?

2007-10-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

I hear that fall has arrived in some part of the country...but not quite here...yet (we're still battling 80 degree weather). Even so, I decided to do a fall craft with Jamie. We went outside and picked out a bunch of fallen leaves in various colors, acorns, red berries, and pinecones. We are going to make a wreath to hang up on his door by gluing it all to a paper plate. Fun times, fun times. I will post a picture when we're through.
I did something impressive today. I activated my online banking account AND created a new Ebay account. It consisted of 30 minutes and 3 phone calls to technical support because nothing ever wants to work correctly for me. But now, it is finished. Woot! So most people would say, what's the big deal with that? But I'm not the most computer literate person, so I'm happy with myself. I'm also happy that I won 26 BOOKS on Ebay for Jamie for $5, with only $5.50 in shipping. He loves books and I love books, and I love them even more when I get them for a good deal.:) Woot again.
That's all for now. Comment me folks!:) It makes my day.

Oh, I almost forgot. Tutor training went REALLY well. We're working with a great program and its all Language Arts based, which is my area of expertise, so to say. I get to give the kiddos a pretest on Tuesday to determine their area of weakness is and then we start tutoring on November 13th.

New job training.

2007-10-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

In a couple hours I get to go training for my new job, which is tutoring children in public elementary schools. The upside is that it pays well, and is something that interests me and that I can feel good about. The downside is that my parents are doing it also. Which means, no free babysitting. I'm petty, I know. But we had an agreement that my dad would watch Jamie for me , since he had to watch my brother anyway, and it was only for 3 hours, 3 days a week. But now he decided that he'd like a few extra bucks and that he wants to tutor also. They decided to let a woman that we know come over and watch the boys, but they agree to pay her $20 a day. that's $30 a week for me. Doesn't sound so bad until you realize that I'm only working 9 hours, so a good part of my paycheck will go to paying a babysitter, its like, what's the point? But my parents don't think about that because both of them are working, so in essence its only half the money to pay out, so its worth it for them. I hate to complain, but oh well. I can't argue with them about it, they're *always* right and there's no use to make everyone mad at me. I bet you're thinking, Hallie, go find another babysitter and don't charge as much.
#1. I live with my parents. So both boys are here. It seems stupid to have 2 different babysitters at one place.
#2. I really don't know anyone that could come do it, except maybe some college girls, but they would have to drive at least 15 miles one way to get here, and its not quite worth their gas money.

It's just frustrating is all. But I am looking foward to getting out of the house for awhile each week. I hope my parents and I get assigned to different schools, otherwise, its not much fun to get out of the house when you take the people you want to get away from - with you, lol.

Things would be so much less stressful if I had my house, I know that. But financially I can't do that right now, but hopefully with this job, I can start saving again.

So this post had nothing to do with homeschooling, sorry. Everyonce in awhile it will have to be about me. On a happy note, church was great yesterday and I got to go out to Chinese with some wonderful friends. :) Yay for that!

Free day!

2007-10-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

We took today off because I really needed to get out of the house. I love being a stay at home mom, but between homeschooling and online college, I about go stir-crazy every once in a while. So we went to the next town over, we'll call it Medium Town (we live in Small Town), to go to Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, and Mickey D's. Jamie and I had a really nice time. I normally let him pick out a small something when we go to Wal-Mart (which is like once a month) and he picked out Camo Slippers. They're cute and he loved them. We went to Dollar Tree and I found a picture frame I liked and a Camo hat for Jamie that he thought was cool.:) Then we went to McDonalds and tried to eat as healthy as we could. Jamie really likes the fruit and yogurt parfaits, which I think is a healthy alternative to fries. I know I must sound crazy to describe a small, boring trip to Medium Town like its the highlight of our week, but it is, LOL. We used to live in Florida in a city where there were 3 Super Wal-marts, Super Targets, and a Super K-mart within a 15 mile radius, along with movie theaters, and array of parks, mall, shopping plazas, and restaurants. If I want any of that now, I need to drive 45 minutes to Big Town, where I can find all of that. But we like the laidback quietness of a small town, where everybody literally knows your name, even if the shopping isn't all that great. I've actually saved a lot of money by not having anywhere to spend it!:)
Now we're finishing the night with homemade pizza (crust and all), a movie, and some chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

Lazy kind of day...

2007-10-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Hanging out at home all day, wating for phone calls. My Nana is having gallbladder surgery today and one of my sisters is there with her, keeping the rest of us out-of-staters informed. It's supposed to be a relatively simple procedure. I hope so.

Jamie helped me bake some bread earlier. I have a sourdough starter that I feed and I make about 3 loaves a week with it. I love homemade bread, I feel healthier eating it and feeding it to Jamie, plus I know that there are no additives or preservatives in it. I use unbleached flour mixed with whole wheat. One day I hope to be able to buy a flour mill so I can grind my own flour, but for now, this is what I do. I wouldn't say that I'm a healthfood nut, but I do like to eat healthy. I like fresh fruits and vegetables, and try to stay away from red meat and pork as much as possible. Plus Jamie and I most always just drink water, 100% juice, and 2% milk.

Jamie is supposed to have a soccer game tonight, but it's raining right now. I hope it will dry up and won't be canceled, because that'll mean that we'll have to make it up in November. Well, I promised Jamie I would play a board game with him, so off I go.:)

Recap of soccer.

2007-10-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Jamie's soccer game went well last night. He plays goalie and takes turns with another player each quarter. He's good at what he does, and I'm glad that the coach recogizes that. Jamie is NOT a runner. Well, I guess I can say, he is not a kicker, because he can run after the ball as fast as you please, but that's all. At home, we practice kicking and taking it away and shooting in the goal, but on the field he is so UNaggressive. So the goal post is where he is happiest. He helps out his team and he gets to stay put and be his normal, passive self. And I wouldn't have him any other way.
We did not win. We have yet to win a game this season, but this is not new news. We did not win during spring soccer at all (we only got one goal the whole season), and I don't expect us to win this season - we keep the same kids each season. Our team age range is 4-6 year olds and in the spring we had 9 4-year-olds, 1 5-year-old, and 1 6-year-old. We were the only team that had such young kids, and it showed. This fall they are better, but nowhere near the other teams with 6 (almost 7) year old players. But our turn will come. Next spring I think we'll have an advantage with experienced players. Only...I'm not so sure if Jamie is going to play or not come spring. I just don't think he's quite into it. T-ball will also start back in the spring, which he did this past year, and I think he likes it better. We'll see. Nothing exciting on the homeschool front today, just a regular sort of day.:)

Fun with pennies

2007-10-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today I figured I would do something a litte fun for Jamie with math/numbers. Lately, we've just been practicing counting, doing workbook pages, and practcing number writing. So he LOVES finding change and putting it in his money jar (its on the top corner of the bookshelf in the picture). I'm trying to teach him about saving it so he can buy something he wants, and so far he has not spent any of it. So I came up with a "penny store" idea. I have a goody bag in my room with little prizes and candies for rewards. I took some items and made price tags that said 1c. 3c. 5c. etc. on them. Then I gave him 11 pennies and told him he could "buy" whatever he wanted, as long as he used all his money. He bought a pack of erasers for 10 cents and 1 starburst candy for 1 cent. First though he figured he could buy ALL the candy for 11 cents, but he really wanted the erasers (yeah, so he's wierd like that!) so, he was happy with the 1 starburst. Fun times. He then announced that he loved to do school. Ha! We'll see about that tomorrow.:)
On a different subject, I gave him my old Super NES a month ago with about 20 games. My brother has an Xbox, and those games are just too hard in my opinion for a 4 year old, and plus, my brother doesn't share the controller very often. Jamie realy enjoys playing the Super NES...a little too much. Its all he wants to do lately, so much so that I've gotten to the point where he's only allowed to play it as a reward, otherwise he'd become a little game zombie stuck in front of it all day. But its fun for me to replay the old Mario games that I liked so much as a kid, and Jamie thinks I'm so great because I can beat all the levels of the "hard" games, something I cannot do with the new games on Xbox and such.:)
He has a soccer game tonight at 7. He's currently fighting an asthma cough that sounds liking a barking seal, so we'll see how he's doing. Normally he plays goalie, so he doesn't have to move around so much, which means no exertion, which means less coughing.

Starfall

2007-10-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Whoops.
I forgot to mention that I really LOVE Starfall.com. Jamie's Pre-K teacher told me about it and I use it once or twice a week to supplement Jamie's lessons. They have little songs and games for every letter and sound, and even a calendar that you can use everyday, plus seasonal projects. One of Jamie's favorites right now is the Pumpkin one where he can choose his own pumpkin and decorate (not to mention that he learned to read the word "pumpkin"). I was going to mention that in my earlier post and forgot.:)

Postweekend school and board games.

2007-10-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's always hard for Jamie to get in the groove on Mondays to do school. Even when he went to preschool Mon.-Fri. last year he would cry every Monday morning. So today wasn't much different. He didn't cry though, just whined, but we started and it was all okay. We started on long "e" this week, we did long "a" last week. It seems sort of long and drawn out to spend an entire week on one sound but I think its actually good for Jamie. It's difficult because he just got all the other short sounds down pat where he can read blends and short one vowel words very easily. Now its like he has to rethink everything because I'm telling him that "a" doesn't sound likie that anymore, it sounds different, but it only sounds different if there is another vowel in the word. Talk about confusing! I've heard that the English language is the most difficult to learn, and I believe it!
We did a puzzle and played a game after our lessons which he really liked. I'm not sure if its because of his age, or because he has no siblings that he plays games with, but he can sure be a sore loser sometimes! I used to let him win everytime we played a game, but now I'm trying to teach him that its okay if he loses and to be a good sport. Its coming along, I guess. If he loses, he just wants to play again until he wins.;) He really does like to play board games and I'm thinking of getting him a few for Christmas, even though he does have a lot now. I've heard good things about Monopoly Jr. and also Boggle Jr. We'll see. It would be nice to have a few educational things thrown in with the Power Rangers, Go Diego Go, and Disney Cars toys that he wants.

So even though this is a homeschool blog, I'm probably going to start writing more about our life in general, because I really don't want to have 2 seperate blogs, one about school, and one about everything else. So if you're just reading this for homeschool info, just skip everything else!;)

Update #2

2007-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

So first I got lazy, and then I got bored, and then I went to Florida again for a few weeks. But now I'm back! And I'm going to be trying to update for the next few days if possible. And while I was gone, my background, font, and everything went all weird, so I will have to try to fix it soon. I've been busy homeschooling my son but also doing school myself. I have enrolled full time (14 credit hours) into a Medical Transcription program that's all online. I was really looking for a career that I could do that was interesting, use my medical knowledge, and grammar skills, but still be at home for Jamie. I think this is the job. I should finish up the program in June and get my certificate so that I can start applying for jobs this summer. I'm trying to survive off student loan money and maybe a part time job.

Homeschooling started off with a bang. Not a fun bang, the kind of bang that scares you and makes you wonder how it happened and how do you make it stop?!?! Yeah....not so much fun at first. It was my fault, I planned too much out I think. And Jamie was overwhelmed, and also not used to the mama/teacher role. He won't sit still, he wants to play, or sit in my lap, or lay on the floor...anything but concentrate on what we're doing. So I backed off some and I think I have a routine established. BTW-He did cry for the first 8 days of school. Everyday. Because I was MEAN and made him sit at his desk and practice his handwriting. Mmmhmmm.

So this is how our morning starts out. We wake up at 8ish (don't be hatin', that's our homeschooling priviledge of sleeping in), then we eat breakfast, get dressed, and start the day out with phonics. I've learned that its better to get that done and over with. I don't use all the MANY MANY MANY exercises and lessons that his A Beka Teacher manual says to do, because its based for a classroom with multiple kids, with multiple learning abilities. I have found what works for Jamie, and that's a quick review of what we did yesterday, a short lesson on today's letter, or blend, or whatever we're doing, and then here's the best part - I LET HIM WRITE ON THE WHITEBOARD. Who would have thought that this would make the whole day start off great? He loves to write on it, so I have him mark out the "silent e", or put the "smily face" on top of the short vowel sound, or when its time to do math, I let him draw "5 triangles", etc. After phonics we do a quick handwriting worksheet that I let him do alone while I feed the animals, or make my bed. I used to sit next to him and correct him when he made a mistake in writing, but that stressed him out and got me frustrated, so its better when we do it this way. Now he's excited to show me what he did and takes constructive criticsm well, i.e. "Jamie, that 'a' looks little wobbly, can you go fix it?" and he's happy to fix it. After that we do "Numbers", because really, its not quite math yet. I am surprised how quickly he picks up the concept and can now count to 100, count by 10, and by 2s to 20. When we started in August, he could only count to 20 and even that was a bit crazy:"...11, 12,13,16,19,20!".
So, we're getting there.:) We have a group of homeschooling parents that homeschool in our county and in the surrounding counties that get together every month. We plan field trips and activities to get the kids together. Friday we had a field trip to a radio station, where the DJ was going to show the kids how it ran and all, but Jamie was running a fever and was quite pitiful, so we didn't get to go. In December we're all going to Disney on Ice to see High School Musical. We went last year and saw Disney Princesses Dream Come True, and Jamie love it, as did my 11 year old brother. Its just exciting and fun and they put on a great show. Right at the beginning of August the kids got to go to the beach together, which was fun for them too.
I guess that's all for now. I promise to keep my blogging skills up (hand over my heart). Because I can take the 10 minutes to do it. :)

Update

2007-07-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been waiting for my final order to come in the mail. Which it hasn't yet, but I'm hoping for today. I had a big mixup with my ABEKA book order, it was all my fault, I entered the wrong book code, but I will have to say that their support staff is excellent. They fixed everything for me and even apologized for the problem (but it was MY fault!) and sent it out in a timely manner. So go ABEKA! I went to Walmart the other day and bought my small white board and EXPO markers to put on James' wall. I'm a visual sort of person, so I'm hoping that if that's his learning style then it will help him get through. I wanted to start school on Monday, because everything is here and ready, but I don't know, i may wait until next week. But I have an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Alabama to a children's home in 3 weeks, where I can actually take James with me, which is neat, but I don't want to start school and then take a week off. I'm not sure if that will mess him up or not. And I'm not sure what kind of time we'll have while we're there to work on school stuff. I guess we'll see how it all works out. Maybe I'm stressing too much. Have a great weekend everyone!

My ABEKA order

2007-07-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

So I went ahead and ordered the last of my curriculum today. I've been thinking and rethinking what I wanted from ABEKA, and even though my list was long, I shortened it to just two items, Number Skills K (which I got the teacher edition off Amazon.com for half price), and Writing with Phonics K5 Manuscript. I wasn't able to afford K5 Bible Activity Book and Art Projects Kindergarten because I have already spent my maximum amount on curriculum from another source (Love to Learn). I figured that for now, I could come up with my own Bible and Art lessons from materials and books I already have in my home. ABEKA was a bit pricy for shipping, at least I thought so, they had a flat $8.00 fee, which is great I guess when ordering a lot, but not so great for someone like me who just ordered two items. They also ship in just 2 business days, which is nice and one of the reasons I put off ordering for so long, I knew it would arrive soon. When my books arrive I will look through everything and post my lesson plans, stay tuned to see what happens!

God Bless!

Ballantyne Book Giveway

2007-07-20T10:37:00.001-07:00

So I was reading one of my favorite blogs and came across some interesting news.

Life In A Shoe is hosting a giveaway of Vision Forum's exciting new adventure series, Ballantyne Books.

I decided to research these books on Vision Forum and I decided that I absolutely LOVE them! I know that my son is young right now, but I do already think about how much I want him to enjoy reading as he grows. I was a total bookworm and I knew how books could just transport me into adventures, mysteries, and fairytales. I think that James might have an opportunity as he grows to love books as much as I do, especially after finding these books. I particularly like the All-American Boy's Adventure Catalog. What a great find! Look it up and if you want, visit Life In A Shoe and enter the giveaway too!

Great Resource Site!

2007-07-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

I found a really great website that I thought I would post. Its homeschool help from Kindergarten to Third grade and has links to other websites with worksheets, book lists, helpful "starting up information" for the new homeschool parent, including state laws. I found it to be a wonderful resource.

HomeschoolingAdventures

Summer Ending So Soon?

2007-07-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have decided to begin school August 6th, which leaves only 2 1/2 more weeks of summer vacation. Where has the summer gone??? We did get out of school late this year because we started late (8th grade, my homeroom class I taught, had a new modular this year that took awhile to update and pass code inspections). James and I went to Florida for 2 weeks this summer to visit family and to go to Disney World! We had a nice time, my twin sister went with us. **Note to self: Next time you go to Disney go in January** It was so hot! And very busy with summer tourists (I don't consider myself one since I spent 22 years living there).
I have already ordered part of my curriculum for James from "Love to Learn". The rest I will order from Abeka.com soon. When I get it all together I will post pictures of it and how I plan to use it.
So here's to the rest of the summer, I hope yours is fun and safe!!

God Bless!

P's. I LOVE Goofy!

Getting Started

2007-07-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking up curriculum and comparing my choices. And boy, are there A LOT of choices! I'm really leaning to Christian suppliers, because if I am going to teach my child at home, then wouldn't I want to teach him with the values we believe in? Makes sense.

I have found a lot of interesting resources in 2 catalogs that have been sent to my home, "Timberdoodle" and "Love to Learn". I like how it is written by parents of homeschoolers who have tried every product they are selling and lists reasons why or why you should not purchase it. How wonderful to find people who actually are looking out for you and not just their own pockets! I also have been browsing Abeka.com for curriculum. This is what James' preschool class used last year and he responded well to it. If you have any suggestions, please comment me!

God Bless!

I like this magazine, check it out!

A Crazy Idea?

2007-07-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

I had a crazy idea last week. After contemplating my choice between the cost of sending my son to a private Christian school for kindergarten, versus the rapidly declining yet free public school system, I was struck with the thought of “neither”. What if he didn’t not attend either place? What if I were to actually home school James (my little boy)? My college background IS teaching, its what I’ve been doing the past two years. Huh. That could work. The plan WAS for me to go back to college this fall, which could consist of mostly online courses, I would have the time, and I would be able to stay home. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. But what would James think? He liked school for the most part, and he had friends that went to school with him in preschool. So I asked him. And he was thrilled! He thought it was the best idea ever (actually I think the exact quote was “You’re the best momma ever!”), so here I go…traipsing into the unknown world of home school, of being the complete and sole supervisor of my child’s education. That seems a bit daunting. Like, if he doesn’t learn to read well, that’ll pretty much be on me. But then, I think of all the things he can learn with me that he wouldn’t at school. We’ll have time for music, art, field trips, and of course swimming, his favorite activity. I think this can really work. I’m up for it. Anyone have any suggestions, resources, schedules, or activities that work well for you and your family? Please let me know, I’ll need all the help I can get.
God Bless!

This book sounds interesting, check it out!