Events, Homeschool Curriculum & a Birthday too

This month was a bit on the busy side. Not only were we continuing to get into a homeschooling schedule...Joe and I also had to coordinate his SBTIA Economic Action Summit event. This is an annual event we do, and their biggest fundraiser of the year.

I'm happy to say I pulled it all off! The room was packed and the event was a success.

Homeschooling is going great. I spent the last month trying to figure out exactly what curriculum I want to use. Everyone told me not to rush and I'm glad I didn't.

I went to a small homeschool conference on Monday. The conference was about teaching your kids history through historical literature. I decided to use this curriculum (Beautiful Feet Curriculum), for literature and history. The best part is my friend Steff has the curriculum and is not using it this year...so she loaned it to us. We start next week.

I also chose MCP Math for our math curriculum and Apologia's Young Explorers Series for our science. We should be able to start with all three sometime next week.

Kami turned 8 on October 22nd. We took her to Build A Bear Workshop and she also had a party with some of her close friends. She had a great birthday. :)

Lessons Learned

We have officially been homeschooling for 4 weeks today. It has been an interesting month to say the least. There have been days I liked it, days I hated it, and days I think my kids felt the same.

This past weekend we made the decision that CAVA was not for our girls. It is a great school, with a very rich curriculum, however...it was a little too advanced for my girls. The math frustrated us all. It jumped from concept to concept way too quickly. The science and history seemed like 6th grade level to me...my girls lost interest very quickly.

We have decided to homeschool the girls on our own. By doing this, we can choose curriculum that fits their needs and interests them. We can go at their pace and forget the state standards. I don't want them pushed through stuff to pass a test. I want them to master their skills and build confidence!

Yesterday we did it all on our own and had the best day yet! I am seriously excited about this!

Some Lessons I Have Learned this Month:

• Start your school day with bible reading and prayer
  
• School can and should be FUN and interesting
• You should laugh while teaching and learning
• Life is a part of school
• Love each other despite each other's annoyances
  
• Be open minded about curriculum
• Everything will not work for every kid
• Don't be scared to quit something that isn't working
• Don't be afraid to go back to the basics if your kids need it for a season
• Have a schedule and stick to it most days (we need structure, but I am flexible if something comes up)
  
• Have a set of rules and stick to them (this is crucial to our day)
  
• Reward the kids for sticking to the morning schedule and school rules
  

Today is the Day!

Today is the day...the official day of the start of our homeschooling!

These two silly girls are my students.

We have a schedule, supplies, everything we need...

We actually started a bit of work last week, just to get us in the mode. We have 3 days of math/language arts that we did ahead of time. I'm actually feeling pretty excited about the year ahead. I think we are all going to love this!

As for me, I am waking up around 6am to get a couple hours of work done before the school day starts. This has been a huge relief for me...I am able to get pressing things out of the way early so that I can focus on the girls and school. =)

Let the day begin!

Delight!

I had an amazing weekend!

On Friday night I went to a live simulcast with Beth Moore, from Living Proof Ministries. I have read a couple of her books, and signed up for this event a few weeks ago. I had never heard her live before. Let me just say, she doesn't let down!

I went with one of my friends, Steff. We really don't know each other that well, but the Lord sure matched us up and threw us together!

The theme of the teaching was on Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart". It is amazing how He has been speaking to me on this very issue over the past few weeks. If you read my blog A Captive Heart, you will see a theme going about having the joy of the Lord, and not letting the enemy steal that joy. Well, that was the theme at this event! I love when He does that! Such great confirmation.

It was such a refreshing time in His Word. Sometimes I forget how needed those times are. I'm blessed I had the opportunity to go and thank my husband for holding down the fort.

Princess for a Day

Today is my birthday...the girls thought I should wear a princess crown for my birthday picture on facebook...so I did.

Sweetest sound I have heard all day was my 7 year old Kami coming to my bedroom door and saying "happy birthday mama"...she was so excited and it was pretty much the first thing she thought of today. She melts my heart sometimes...

The girls and I went to the DMV to renew my license, and I lucked out with hardly any wait at all. I usually don't put that off until the day my license expires...but for some reason, I forgot this time.

Joe took the girls and I out for pizza for lunch...my pick, I wanted to pick something the girls would like too...otherwise it would have been my favorite mexican restaurant.

My son Joey blessed me with some flowers when I got back from lunch. What a sweet kid.

Tonight Joe will BBQ and Jackie will come over...Joey has to work, JP has to work, and my mom has to work. So, the BDay extravaganza will be small this year.

Oh, and I am NOT counting calories today!

What? No TV?

We have two weeks until school starts. Up to now, my girls have been sleeping in later and later, have had no structure, and things have been just crazy.

Today I woke them up at 8:30...next week I will wake them up at 8:00...all in preparation of getting up for homeschooling the week of September 8th.

One thing we are going to focus on over the next two weeks are a couple of new rules. 1) Each girl can have 1 hour of computer time for play (not school). 2) TV's can't be turned on until 3pm.

This is going to be a challenge!

My hope is that eventually, we can do away with TV time all together. I need ideas on how to do this. Especially ideas where I don't have to be their constant entertainment. I work from home and when we aren't doing school, I need the couple of hours each day to do my job.

I thought about unplugging the cable cords behind their TV's and telling them they must be broken...hahaha. However, I would rather have them in agreement with me. Kami would have no problem with this, but Jenna is the type of kid that wants/needs constant stimulation...anyone have any ideas?

Also, I must note, even though TV's can be turned on at 3pm...that is the time of day for dance, cheer, errands...so it isn't like they will sit in front of them all afternoon. My hope is this "TV time" will get later and later, or better, that they won't want to watch it anymore.

Craziness of summer

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted. Summer has been crazy and the strange thing is, we haven't really done anything specific.

The girls had swimming lessons, Jenna started cheerleading, they have had a few play dates here and there, some beach days too...but it just seems that we had more time when we were homeschooling for that last 4 weeks of school. To tell you the truth, I think we are all looking forward to getting back into the structure.

We did make a decision that it would be best for me to quit one of my jobs. It was the one job I had that required me to leave home. I just knew it would be next to impossible to try and do that with homeschooling. I was working for an education foundation that funds our local public schools. Every since I decided to homeschool, it was just a bit awkward. Who knew that just going into an office a couple of times a week, for just a couple of hours each time, would be such a production and take such a big chunk of time out of my day.

School is just around the corner. The girls start on September 8th. We ended up making the decision to go with the public charter school, CAVAK12. It is a virtual online academy. The girls are schooled from home, are supplied with a computer, all of the books, a teacher we meet with quarterly, as well as IEP services for Jenna. They sign on each morning and log in to see what they have to do for the day/week. This means, I don't have to do the planning, yay! I think it is going to be great.

Starting next week we are going to try to implement a schedule of some sort back into our day. Come up with new rules, etc...this way we will be ready on the first day of school!