She Can't Be Nine!!!

It's hard to believe, but my little girl is now 9 years old! (She has been for a few weeks, but I'm a little behind.) Wow! Where did time go?!?!

In interviewing her, this is what she said was her favorite...

food - Chinese (Sesame Chicken)

color - Green

song - Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone

tv Show - Phineas and Ferb because they build cool stuff

movie - Aladdin

Bible verse - Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

thing to do with mom - shop

thing to do with dad - ride in the red truck with him

thing to do with C. - build with Legos

toy - Chopsticks (a stuffed red monkey beanie baby)

animal - panda

bff -Abby, Star, Hannah

place to go - beach

thing to do at beach - play with Lily & Peyton and build sand castles around Papa's feet

thing to do in the mountains - ride The Scrambler at Dollywood

number - 9

sports team - Clemson because Mom graduated from CU

meat - chicken

veggie - lettuce (iceberg)

ice cream - cookies and cream

dessert - peanut butter pie

pizza - meatball (hamburger)

cake - chocolate pound cake

drink - grape Fanta

place to eat - China Inn

game - Hide & Seek

sport - soccer

thing to wear - shirts and dresses (navy blue dress)

person you most admire - Mom

S., it's so hard to believe that you're already nine. You are a sweet young lady, and God is going to do great things in you and through you. I love to hear you laugh. You are becoming such a good helper to me, and you are learning so much! Thank you! I know you enjoyed your birthday, especially going to Dollywood. Your dad and I love you so much, and we are enjoying watching you grow up. Keep your focus on Jesus, and please Him in all that you do. We love you!!!

An Update

At the end of August I blogged about something just not working with the curriculum we were using. I THOUGHT it was the next book we were doing in the Little Hearts series, so I decided to "piece" together our own curriculum. I was excited, but in the meantime while I waited for our new books to arrive, we plugged along with Bigger Hearts For His Glory. Guess what?!?! We actually fell into a groove...AND enjoyed it. I think what it really all boiled down to this year was that I had been so up in the air as what to use this year until right down to the wire, I second guessed everything. I had never understood noteboooking or had any experience in it, and in her curriculum there's at least one day a week when we do notebooking. I was kind of put out by that. Not because it was hard, but it was NEW to me, and frankly, it frightened me a little.

Even though we have now found our groove, something still just was not clicking. We are getting tired of "schooling"...ALL of us! And I mean literally tired! It takes us AT LEAST 6 hours to finish everything, and that's for a second and a third grader! My husbby and I have been exhausted because it takes all day to get school finished. My house is a wreck, and I haven't felt at peace because I have not had time to do anything. A few weeks ago, I knew what has been our problem....MATH! I was bound and determined to use Saxon math this year because I really liked the concept of it, and thought it would be good for my little darlings. However, that's where all our time is going!! It takes me about 1 1/2 hours with each child to just complete math beacuse the home version of Saxon is set up to have a one on one meeting EVERY day that repeats the same things EVERY day!!! After that, I introduce a new skill, etc. My little darlings have not complained at all about the time it's taken to finish all our school work, but like I said, it's just not bringing a peace like it has in the past.

I've been praying for wisdom and for God to guide me in what to use for math for them so that I don't have 3 hours of my day tied up with just one subject. I wasn't sure what direction to go, but yesterday evening when we finally got finished with everything about 6:00 pm, my hubby said we were going to have to do something about school lasting so long. (He had spent his last 2 days off helping me teach, and he hadn't had time to do much of anything else either!) He made a suggestion after that, and I offered a suggestion, too. He told me to go ahead and order what I had suggested because it's actually what we have used every year since we began homeschooling, and it's what Bigger Hearts suggests to use, however, her curriculum is flexible so one can use whatever he/she chooses. I felt like a BOULDER had been lifted off of my shoulders...AND I felt a PEACE!!!

So now we are waiting for our new math curriculum to arrive, but we'll continue to use Saxon until it does. And I will probably continue using PARTS of it with the new book, because I DO like Saxon, it's just too time consuming for us. And isn't that what homeschooling is about - doing what's right for your family?

I hope the coming homeschooling years are not like this one!!! But that's how we learn! =)

Happy Birthday, C.!

C. turned 8 yesterday, and out of all the places he had to choose from, he wanted to eat at Taco Bell. I mean he didn't even want to go to a "real" Mexican restaurant. Without trying to sway him, I named every restaurant in our whole town just in case he had forgotten any, and he STILL chose Taco Bell. It was his birthday and his choice, so we all obliged.

I should have started interviews several years ago, but I didn't, so I wanted to go ahead and start doing it this year since children change so much over time. Here are the replies of a certain 8 year old boy:

What is your favorite...
Food? Cheese Pizza
Color? blue...AND green
Song? Jesus Loves Me
TV Show? Phineas and Ferb Why? because they build things like me
Movie? Fireproof
Bible Verse? John 3:16
Toy? Legos and big fire truck
Animal? dog, cat, and lion
Friend? Austin and Aaron
Meat? turkey
Veggie? tomatoes
Ice Cream? chocolate chip cookie dough
Dessert? brownies
Cake? chocolate with chocolate icing and chocolate sprinkles
Drink? green tea
Automobile? blue 4 door Dodge "dually" truck
Game? Wii Baseball
Number? 100 Why? because I might die then and go to Heaven
Sport's team? Carolina Panthers Why? because they're famous and cool
Thing to Wear? "All of my clothes because without them I would be naked."
Sport? baseball
Place to Eat? Pizza Hut
Person You Most Admire? Dad
Thing to Do with Mom? go shopping
Thing to Do with Dad? sit in his lap and watch tv
Thing to Do with S.? build with Legos
Place to Go? Monkey Joe's
Thing to Do at the Beach? play in the ocean on my boogie board
Thing to Do in the Mountains? ride bumper cars at Dollywood

I hope your birthday was great!!! You are becoming such a sweet young man, and I know God has very special plans for your life. You are Truly a miracle!! What a blessing you are to me. I love your hugs and kisses, especially when I don't have to ask for them! :) You will always be my favorite boy, "Harry!" I love you to the moon and back and then some!!! Happy birthday, my sweet son!!

WARNING...Detour Ahead!

Since I began homeschooling my little darlings 4 years ago, we have always used the books in the Little Hearts for His Glory curriculum line...and absolutely LOVED IT!!! This year, however, I had some mixed reviews and reservations about continuing with the same kind of curriculum in the Bigger Hearts for His Glory book. I struggled. I mean I REALLY struggled, but I continued to pray about it and THOUGHT I was doing the right thing by using it, but using a different math. It took me only a couple of days to realize that this was just not going to work for us, but we stuck with it for a week just to see if it would get better for us. I'm sorry to say that it didn't. In my personal opinion this particular book was very different from the first three (which we LOVED). I just felt like it was too much for us. That's the only way I know to describe it.

I researched some other options for history and science, and placed an order with Rainbow Resource. Now we are in a transitional phase as we await our new books!! I'm excited, though. Whenever we receive our order, we will begin using Mystery of History for our social studies portion, Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 for science, and Sequential Spelling 1 for spelling. We will continue using Saxon for math since it is new to us this year and for reading we'll continue to follow the block in the BHFHG book along with our phonics book. I also like how BHFHG does Bible Study, so we'll follow that plan as well. For writing, my eldest little darling will use Cheerul Cursive, and my son will be using Italic Handwriting Book C. Then throughout the year, I'll be working with my little darlings to create some books. I think we're in for a fun year...I'll try to let you know how it goes!

A Piece of My Past...

Raise your hand if you remember this. This was probably my very first electronic toy when I was growing up. It's called "Little Professor," and it's an electronic calculator that was put out by Texas Instruments. It has a copyright of 1976 on it. I used to play with this thing all the time. It's one of the memories from my childhood. When I found it today, I couldn't believe that it still worked!!! I was so excited!! What is it about our favorite childhood toys? They stir up such excitement and emotion. You find something like this, and you become an 8 year old elementary school girl all over again. I hope you enjoyed this trip down "memory lane". I may have to post some of my other childhood memories at another time like my Farah Fawcett doll and my Donnie and Marie Osmond dolls. All of a sudden I feel VERY OLD!!!

Freedom Is Not Free!

There is a price to pay, but most of us are unwilling to pay for our freedom. We leave it in the hands of our Armed Forces. Behind every military uniform is a father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, uncle, aunt. Sometimes we forget that. We forget (myself included) that each one leaves behind a family. Let us remember to pray for them and their families.

Those military men and women could not protect us without our Almighty God. He watches over us all, and He is our ultimate Protector! May God bless America...land that I love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!