Today I worked on planning an activity for some of our homeschool friends. We are going to get together in a few days and I thought it would be fun for the kids to document some of their favorites from last year and make some goals for this year. I also found a cute paper for the mamas to make some goals. I hope that the little party I have planned will be fun, even if it’s a bit late!

Blessings to each of you and prayers for your 2012. Make a great start and keep it up. I am going to make it a happy productive year! See you soon, dear readers!

I think maybe I am not cut out for this teaching gig. But I know in my heart that God wants me to teach my children and that they were given to me for this reason. One of the reasons we began homeschooling was because of our lack of time with Kristopher. It’s hard to teach very much when you only see them for a couple of hours each day and often those are full of other people an activities. So, I feel like this is what I have to do. But this week is making me feel terrible! I am having so much trouble teaching Taylor. I don’t think it’s her either, I think I am the problem. I teach something and then I expect it to have been learned. The trouble is that I am not good with repetition. I can’t stand it and that is much of teaching a young child to read and do math… I don’t like to do the same thing over and over. Even on the days she does great (and she is doing so much better this year) I think, “why can’t you just read it?” That’s awful!

The other thing frustrating me this week is Kristopher’s lack of trying. He is usually just fine with school and tries hard and I enjoy doing all his lessons with him, but now he is trying to sneak around and not finish work and is just not listening. It’s making me crazy. I have nothing left to take away (I feel like) and I for sure don’t want to give anything for this behavior. And then there’s the fact that Kameron and Kyler get less of my time when I’m trying to teach and that often times they are distracting to the others.

I know all homeschooling families (probably, hopefully) deal with the same things…I just feel like maybe I don’t want to deal with it anymore. I guess I just need to suck it up and keep going. I’m just worn out already and trying to come up with new things to get people to cooperate is not high on my wishlist of things to do. I know I’m being selfish, but I also am sad that I don’t have time to sew and make things or organize my house or go to a store with 2 kids instead of 4, and on and on… I really am happy with what I do most of the time and I feel it’s better than the alternative, but man I’m tired right now. I really wish I could just get a little break sometimes! I have heard of places that have schools that meet 2 days a week and the other 3 days the families homeschool. This sounds like the perfect thing for me. Alas, there is not a school like that here.

So, probably just whining, which I don’t like to do, but I just don’t have anyone to talk to today. So, there you go. Hopefully things will get better again soon.

As you walk in you see, on the right, Kody’s desk and for now the computer the kids use when they need to use it. The white cabinet houses all our current school books, reference books, coloring books, and their supplies. The black shelf is Kody’s and the file cabinet is just that, a file cabinet. :) On the left, is my dresser (won’t fit in our bedroom for now with Kyler in there) which makes a good seperating half wall. Since we’ve had it like this the kids seem to stay put at the table when we’re doing something better. I like it this way!

Once you go around the dresser/wall you are in our “classroom”. We bought this table a few weeks ago and it is fabulous. Everyone needs a table like this if you have children, homeschooling or not! It is wonderful and we spend a lot of time here already, even if we don’t have to be. On the wall beside the table I put up a large map and some art clips. I am happy to have finally found a solution that I like for hanging kids art! I do want to put something above the map. Perhaps, if I have time to make one, a penant garland would be cute?! We always have jars of pencils in the middleof our table. I love mason jars!

Over to the side is my desk and our calendar. I don’t really like having the calendar all the way over there, but that’s really the only place for it. We have 4 fabulous windows that give us light during the day. I’m a big fan of all the natural light. The kitchen is still my favorite room in the house, but this is easily my second favorite now (and not just because I have my computer here.)

We still need to put up baseboards and Kody evetually wants to find a desk that he likes. We’ll probably put up some kind of window coverings eventually too, boo. Other than those few things this room is D-O-N-E and it is a fun place to be! Hope you enjoyed the tour!

*I am a big copycat and most of my inspiration lately comes from Lindsey aka The Pleated Poppy. I want to live in her house!

The mail today was awesome! And, I wasn’t even here to get it. So, when I got home I found waiting on my porch a beautiful chore board from Back40Life. I had been wanting one of these for a couple of years I think (since the first time I saw them) and decided to use some of my birthday money to get one. They did a beautiful job and I love the way it turned out!

I didn’t want to spend the extra money to get the wooden hang tags, so I was just going to make my own. Then I saw this free printable (from Biblcal Homemaking) in the colors I was having my board painted. Can we say perfect timing! I printed these on regular paper and then used my handy dandy laminator to make them sturdy. Plus, I can use a dry erase marker to make the chores more specific. For example, one says “wash the walls”. I can add “kitchen” or “your bedroom” before hanging it. Then I punched holes and they are exactly what I wanted! I love it when things come together!

We also got the box of 200 prints for $2 that I ordered from snapfish. Since we had the laminator out we did a picture of each of the kids. I thought these would be fun for a break during lessons to draw on with dry erase markers too. We’ll see what we can add to their faces. ;)

Now hopefully chores and downtime will be a little more fun. Haha, who am I kidding? At least they’ll be cute!

At the beginning there’s this page for a family picture and some keepsake information. And a greeting card registry on the next page – exactly what I needed!

There are pages for each student, to keep track of their books and cost of schooling and their normal schedule. There are 4 of these, so if you have more than four children this book might not be perfect for you. :)

There’s a page for semester goals (for each semester).

For your planning there are weekly pages with 4 lines on each subject, so you can put up to 4 students work plans in. On these pages there are also dinner menus, priorities, and a weekly catechism to work on. I really like this!

If you want to use them, there are semester grade and attendance sheets for each child (4). There are also report cards at the end – fun!

There’s a whole holiday organization section with pages for Christmas Cards, Events, Gift Giving, Shopping, and Notes.

In addition to those there are articles on every month from The Home Educating Family Magazine and tear out shopping lists on every month. At the beginning you’ll find places to write in contacts and household finance information and chores. This planner really has it all and I’m hoping it really does help me to have a well planned day!

* The folks at Home Educating Family Publishing have no idea who I am or that I even exist. I just love this product and wanted to pass it on. :)

I thought I would share what I’m doing curriculum-wise with you and give you a little bit of my plan. Maybe this will hold me accountable and make me keep to my plan a little better throughout the year. I hope to do better with an infant than I did while pregnant! We shall see, as a good friend of mine always says. ;)

With Kristopher I am going to continue on with the My Father’s World curriculum. He did Adventures in My Father’s World last year and we loved it! So, we are starting their 5 year cycle this year. Instead of starting with the year of Geography (because a) I’ve heard it’s kind of boring and b) I want to do the same curriculum as a friend) we are going to do Creation to the Greeks. You can really start anywhere in the cycle because it is designed to use with multiple age children at once. That material will cover his history, science and bible subjects. Then I ordered some math and english books that I thought looked good. Here is his list:

Journey through the Bible
Streams of Civilization, Volume 1
Ancient World
Celebrating Biblical Feasts
Ancient Egypt
Aesop’s fables for Children (with CD)
The Trojan Horse
The Children’s Homer
Genesis for Kids
English from the Roots Up
Dinosaurs of Eden
CDs with the music and life stories of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi
God and the History or Art
Pyramids
Archimedes and the Door of Science
Get A Clue Devotions
Big Truths for Young Hearts – We’ve already started this one and are reading it together.
Singapore Math books 3A and 3B
Success with Grammar
240 Vocbulary Words 4th Graders Need to Know
Rip the Page – I got two copies of this one and I’m going to do it too. :)
Cursive Writing Practice Pages
What to Do When You Grumble Too Much – We’ve already started this one.

Taylor also did My Father’s World curriculum last year. Truthfully, we’re still working on it right now… It was the Kindergarten year and I wasn’t impressed with it at all, so I decided that we would not do their first grade stuff. Instead I ordered a mish-mash of stuff for her and will make my own up as we go along. I am hoping that for her social studies stuff I can just draw from what Kristopher is doing. I might add in some sight word work or a book about states later too. Not sure how much is going to be too much for her. Here is her list for now:

Singapore Math books 1A and 1B – I know MFW says to start these after their first grade year, but the first book starts with counting and number order so I think she can do it!
Explode the Code 1 - I’m planning to use this as our phonics and spelling book for now.
Starfall.com – yes, we will be making use of this free website as well!
Purposeful Design Science by ACSI
25 Emergent Reader Mini Books

Kameron wanted to “do school” last year, so this year I got him a preschool workbook to work on whenever he wants to. I’m not planning to make him sit and do work if he isn’t ready though. No reason to make someone hate school! His book is: The Preschool Comprhensive Curriculum of Basic Skills

Each day this year I am planning to start by reading from our Child’s Story bible (stole this idea from Lindsey and I also think this workbox system looks fab) and do our devotional with prayer time together. I’m hoping this will help get our day started calmly. The books we’ll be using are:

The Child’s Story Bible
Did You Know Devotions

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer and the beginning of your school year! Posted about your plans? I’d love to read them – give me a link!

1. We bought a van. Finally, after a long search we found a van that I really like. We were to the point where we had to get something or things were going to get ugly! The winner was a 2003 Ford Windstar (picture below) and I really like driving it. I took it in to have the oil changed and some recall things tested and had to leave it overnight. While it was at Ford I was given a newer van to drive and I feel silly, but I’d rather have my older one! I guess the thing I like most about it is the adjustable pedals. I had trouble reaching them or sitting comfortably in other vans we looked at. The kids are also excited about all their space. We got it on June 8 and already took it on our first family vacation – fun stuff! The best part of the whole van story is that we were able to pay cash for it! It was just the right amount and we offered what we had and they took it. It is so nice not having a payment and knowing that it is ours. Now, if we could just pay cash to get rid of our credit card, wouldn’t that be awesome?!

2. We’re doing the summer reading program at our library again. I guess we haven’t been very excited about it this year and we haven’t had the time to read very much. It seems like there aren’t as many programs this year either. They did seperate the kids from the adults this year and I really like what they’ve done, I just can’t find the time to read! Right now I am working on “The Help” and it is excellent. I want to stay up late and just finish it, but I am so exhasuted that I can’t make myself do it.

3. We went on a family vacation last week with my dad and 2 sisters and their families. I will do a seperate post about it soon. While we were there we celebrated my 30th birthday and my sister, Erica’s 26th birthday. It was fun and Tiffany bought/made me a button to wear… I was pretty excited to turn 30 and am also excited that Kody and I will have our 10th anniversary next month. I do not feel that 30 is old and I am perfectly happy to say I’ve left my twenties.

4. Kyler is now 11 weeks and 2 days old. He’s getting to be a chubby boy. He’s still a sweet perfect baby and I just love taking care of him. I’m so afraid I’ll forget what it’s like to hold a snuggly baby and it makes me sad. I wish I could somehow capture what it feels like to remember forever!

5. Kameron broke his collar-bone in May and had to wear a brace for a month. He is still healing, but is able to do everything normally now. There is a big bump where it broke (the callous that is holding it together) but he doesn’t even seem to remember anything happened.

6. The two oldest kids went to camp this summer. Kristopher actually went away for a week, with a group from church, to CentriKid. He had a great time and it sounds like they all got a little wild. I know he was happy to be home though. Taylor did a soccer camp in town for a week and had fun. Since I had my first child I’ve wanted to be a soccer mom and I think it’s funny that it’s my girl who loves soccer. I’m glad she has something she really likes though. There are so many things I’d love for the kids to get to do, but we have to pick an choose wisely for our time and money constraints. I do wish I’d signed at least 2 of them up for swim lessons. I say it every year, but I’m getting nervous now since they can’t swim and it just seems like we’re around more water all the time. There’s also a robotics camp at Murray State that Kristopher would love, but it’s so expensive for one week! Maybe next year…

7. My garden this year is not in great shape. I had big aspirations, but having a baby right at planting time via c-section was bad for it. I’ll take a baby over a garden any day, but all we have managed to plant so far is potatoes, tomatoes and buberries. I still have hopes to plant green beans and maybe some other things, but am not sure if I will get a chance. So, if anyone has ANY vegetables or apples you want to give away I’ll take them! Next year hopefully I will be able to actually plant and work in the garden so tha it gets out on time and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

8. Because I like a even number, I will end on 8. I am currently getting all my curriculum ordered and ready. We are trying to get a new school table too. I am looking at the round ones like our church uses. I am hoping to be able to get one before we start in August. We are going to do a little bit of easy stuff in July and start back with our full curriculum by mid August. I decided that we started to late last year with all the breaks we ended up taking. I am also looking at a more structured day for us, since I think maybe we didn’t do enough this year. We’re still getting the hang of it, but we do still like homeschooling our children. I will say it makes it easier to have the support of our family and friends and the help from other people when we need it. I don’t think I could do it on my own without that group.

I hope this post finds you well and having a wonderful summer!

The handprints are Kameron’s hands, Kristopher and Taylor picked what shapes they wanted to give each person and I just made snowflakes for giving our friends or keeping for ourselves. I am a snowflake fan!

We just have to add ribbon through the holes and wrap them up very carefully and then they’ll be on the way to their recipients (who I’m pretty sure don’t read my blog anymore, unless I tell them to). I hope they like them!

I haven’t started the other kids hats yet, but I do have in mind to finally finish my Estes Vest from the Interweave Knits Fall 2008. The last time i worked on this was about a year ago. All I have left is the edging and buttonloops and it will be done. Shouldn’t take too long. Maybe the mojo will stay long enough to finish it.

In other crafty news, I turned this little number that cost me $1 into something I just love. I got the chalk/bulletin board from a local thrift store and removed the cork. Then I painted it and covered the cork with fabric. I do still need to make some kind of piece for the cutout at the top. Thinking about using chalkboard contact paper so I can write my title in and change it whenever I want to. I bought some chalk markers and I love those too. If you have never used them, get some. They make chalkboards desireable again!

I also fixed (with nails, amazing) and painted this table and chairs that were mine and my sisters when we were little. We are going to use this for a our school table for now. While we would like to get something like this, it just isn’t in the budget now. This was free and will be big enough for 2 of the kids to work on. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have!

And, in garden news, we are picking green beans, banana peppers and tomatoes now. Just not as many as I had hoped for. My in-laws gave us tons of tomatoes though and some green peppers, so I can can and freeze some things for winter. I bought some corn from my favorite producer here and am working on it today. I am still hoping my second planting will be worth picking. The first was destroyed by deer, ants and worms – we only got about 5 ears. My cucumbers, gourds and cantaloupe are producing small babies now and I am hoping that they are able to grow to pickable goodness. I also have several cold weather crops to plant in a week or two so we have some yummy stuff for the fall. At least my flowers are beautiful!

January – We celebrated Kristopher and Kody’s birthday quietly with dinner and some cake. Kristopher didn’t get to have a party this year. At the end of the month Western KY was hit by a huge ice storm and we were without electricity and water for almost a week. Our gas fireplace kept us warm and we had to find non-electronical things to occupy our time with. The nights were long since it got dark earlier and we sat around playing cards by candlelight and went to bed pretty early. It was nice to spend so much time together, but we were glad when we could take showers again!

February – Kristopher participated in his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He built his car with some help from Kody, to look like a green pickup truck. It won the prize for most realistic vehicle. Unfortunately it didn’t win in the speed category. We still had a lot of fun with it and the whole family was able to be there:)

March – We started working outside a lot in March, trying to clean up and clear some of our property. The first thing to go was this little old shed. There were two of them right behind our house and we decided to only keep the bigger, nicer one.

April – We had a great Easter, but looking back through my pictures these are some of my favorite memories. The first is of our very dear friends. We hung out with them too many times to count over the year, this is just one of them. Kody found many turtles when he was out clearing the yard or mowing and this is one of them. We thought afterward when we found others that we should have tagged him so we could count how many we actually had. A few we were able to tell some differences. I also have to include this picture of Kameron. He was toted to many soccer games in the spring and he enjoyed playing on the blanket and discovering grass!

May – We bought a new refrigerator this month because we were tired of the old one leaking onto our new floor and ruining it. We really like the new one! Taylor played her first season of soccer this spring and she loves it. I hope she continues to like it or some form of physical activity. She really enjoys being outside and running though, so I think she’ll keep it up for awhile. We also finished Taylor’s room this month.

June – The only memorable thing I could see in pictures this month is that we went to Kody’s cousin Amy and her new husband Jim’s wedding reception. We all had a lot of fun there. Oh yeah…I celebrated my birthday this month too, don’t really remember it though…I think I was getting things ready to teach a week of VBS at church:)

July – So many beautiful memories this month, I took hundreds of pictures! We went to the Independence Day parade and Kristopher walked in it and threw candy with his cubscout pack. We made a trip to Louisville and visited with Grandpa and got to do many things. We spent many days at my in law’s house playing oustide in the garden. But my most favorite memories from this month are of my sweet boy and his cute chubby little hands and feet. I want to remember this forever…

August – This month we started a new adventure…Homeschool. We were unsure of ourselves and wondered if we made the right decision, especially with some of the people we had questioning us. After the last few months of living the homeschooling life, even with the hard days, I wouldn’t trade it back for anything. I really am glad we dove in and tried this and I’m so glad that it is working for our family. I am also very thankful for our support network of families doing the same thing!

September – We celebrated Kameron’s first birthday and Taylor’s fourth all in the same week. It was a busy week that dominated the month in time, energy and pictures!

October – Kristopher learned to ride his bike around the end of August and one of our favorite things to do this fall has been to take a walk/bike ride. The kids hop on their bikes (Taylor’s in a tricycle), Kameron is in the stroller and Kody and I walk. Our street is perfect for family time like this and we all enjoy it. I just love looking at this picture of my “big kids” on their “bikes”. It makes me smile inside!

November – Kristopher and Taylor were outside playing so much at the beginning of this month because it was still so warm. This particular day they decided, on their own, to have a picnic. They covered this old stone well with a picnic blanket, got their little chairs set up and then came and ordered some food. It was fun to watch them with their own ideas:) This month I also participated in a Craft Bazaar at my church – I had a table set up with my handmade things and one for the Usborne books I started selling in August. I really like the books and it has been fun selling them.

December – Christmas was lots of fun and I have so many pictures of decorations and presents being unwrapped, but I don’t think those things will be the ones my mind remembers. The homeschool group that I am in had a birthday party for Jesus (I helped a bit with the organization of it) that the kids all enjoyed. We had crafts, food, cake, bible story, games; what more could you want? We also started tearing up our little bathroom (the kids/guest bathroom) so that we can make it bigger and nicer. It will probably be a work in progress for sometime, but at least it got started! Kristopher was in the older kids musical at church this year and he played the part of a man who lost all his belongings in a fire. He didn’t have any lines to remember, so it waas pretty easy. He did a great job singing too! Taylor also sang before the big kids with the preschool choir. She loves to sing, but I’m not so sure about the being in front of people. Her face is fun to watch.

It was a great year and I feel like we got a lot accomplished not only in our “needs work house”, but in our lives. I feel like we all have grown in our walk with Christ this year and that we have grown closer as a family as well. We still have our issues (doesn’t everybody?) but we’re headed in the right direction. I hope 2009 was the same way for you! Happy 2010 everyone!