Well, it went better than expected...

I introduced History and Science books to the kids yesterday and had them both read a certain amount in each subject. My 11 year old had to also answer the review questions after her history chapter. There was no complaining... I couldn't believe it. The 7 year old actually said he enjoyed the history and was looking forward to what he had to read today! The 11 year old enjoyed her science the most, but that doesn't surprise me. She doesn't care much for history, but I never did either, up until the last few years.

We had a great day yesterday. It was the 11 year old's birthday and we went out for lunch and did a little shopping after school. She got to pick out some pants and a pair of shoes. She had asked for gift cards to the stores we went to so she could shop, but I thought it would be more fun to actually let her shop on her birthday, instead of just giving her the gift cards. She also got her own Wii controller and green sleeve to put on it.

We had all the kids and their significant other's here, along with my dad and his sister and her husband, who come down each January for a couple of months. We ate dinner and then had a great cake - Cookies and Cream - from Target. She had a good day and I was enjoying having all my kids here for the evening.

The kids stayed up late last night, so they are still asleep at 8:45 this morning. You'd think I'd have gotten more done with the extra quiet time this morning, but all I've done is read my bible and get on here to update my blog, looked at a few coffee maker's (I want a thermal one... dh gets up much earlier than I do and by the time I get up, the coffee tastes terrible!), and read my mail.

Well, I'm off to try and find us another Field Trip to enjoy. That's the best part of homeschooling, in my opinion, and I'm wanting to be sure we have something planned for February.

Thanks for checking in with me, and until next time,

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Over the half-way mark...

Anyone else nervous about how much schooling we still have left to do before this school year is up? I am... we have been doing school since early August, but since we started a week after my mom passed away, I wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind for school. Thank goodness that I had already planned my beginning lessons out back in early summer, as I do every year. If I hadn't done that... I doubt we would have started school much before now. Anyway, most of us, who go by a more traditional school calendar, are now a little over half way done with our school year. This is the point in the year that I always wonder if I'm doing enough, if my kids are far enough along in their subjects, if I've chosen the right curriculum...

We're getting ready to add some more traditional work to our schedule. I've been using the Beyond Five in a Row curriculum, and all though we have absoultely LOVED this style of learning, in addition to Bible, English, Math, Spelling and independent reading... I feel my kids are lacking in the history and science areas, again. These were the two subjects my kids didn't excel at during last year's testing. So... after looking through my bookshelves to see what I already own... I've decided to add some History and Science into our schedule.

I have a few great Christian Liberty Press books that I bought last year when friend from church had a "Going out of Business Sale" at the Christian Book store he owned. I'll be starting "A Child's Story of America" with my 2nd grader and "Exploring American History" with my 5th grader. We'll actually be adding them in beginning tomorrow.

I had some Harcourt Science books on the shelves, too, so we'll be starting those as well. I'm expecting that I'll feel a little more comfortable with the amount they've covered in these two subjects the closer we get to testing day, although, I'm sure my kids won't think the extra work is necessary.

We love Beyond Five in a Row, though, so we'll also be reading our last book for the year, "Betsy Ross", from the Childhood of Famous American's series and keeping up with some of the FIAR lessons from the manual.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a bit about the aprehension that I feel every year at this time. You see the end of the year in the near future, and know that you don't have the WHOLE year ahead of you anymore to get in all that you intended. You might make adjustments and that's the blessing of homeschool... you aren't bound to any specific path... you get to make your own.

Thank God for the ability to homeschool our children!

If you, too, are struggling with the "mid-year anxiety"... I'd love to hear from you with how you're dealing with it.

Until next time....

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Don't ya just love a good Field Trip???

It started with a chapter of "Homer Price" where a dress was described as "Robin's egg blue" and developed into a field trip to see bird eggs and their respective birds! That's how we homeschoolers think! And any thing I can relate a field trip to, all the better!

We spent a few hours at our local Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and had a great time! We originally thought that only a few of us would be going, but I asked around and everyone wanted to go. We had 5 mom's and 12 kids! We did a self guided tour, but the employees (or possibly volunteers) at the center took some time out of their day to show our kids some wonderful bird related goodies and even bring some birds out on their arm and talk to the kids about each one. We got up close and personal with a bald eagle, a barred owl, a caracara (my favorite),

and a beautiful hawk, although I'm not sure what kind.The kids asked some great questions, and we really enjoyed the outing. Homeschooling is awesome! We get to get out of the house, go somewhere new, spend time with friends, learning about the fantastic things that God made for his Glory and our enjoyment, and call it "school"!

The kids got to hold feathers, entire wings, beaks, talons, all kinds of cool things! There's just nothing better than "hands-on" learning!

The kids even got to sit in a lifesize Eagle's nest!

What a blessing!

School's back in session!

We started back to school yesterday and had a good first day back. When my dad came over for dinner last night, he asked my seven year old how school went, and the reply was "It was fun!". I'm not sure what made it fun, but I am thrilled he perceived it that way!

We have started the Beyond Five in a Row study for the book Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. I don't recall ever reading this book as a student, but I'm enjoying it as a teacher. We are expecting to enjoy this book, based on the first chapter.

My fifth grader is reading "Island of the Blue Dolphins", by Scott O'Dell. I don't believe I ever read that book, either, but my eighteen year old daughter keeps insisting her siblings need to read that book in 5th grade, because she did in Public School! So, I caved. Actually, it wasn't because she said we needed to read it, it's because it's one of the books on Scholastic's site that they have BookFiles on. Here they are, in case you are curious about what a BookFile is: Scholastic.com Homework Hub: Scholastic BookFiles.

I'm looking for a good book to read right now, as I just finished Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon and after that, I read "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. They are both great books, but now that I've finished them both, I'm not sure what to read next. We're off to the library today, so maybe I'll find something interesting.

I hope you are having a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008! What a great start to a new year...we have had beautiful, cold weather, which in Florida, we don't get much of and I'm loving every minute of it! We spent the day today bundled up and walking around a shopping center, taking advantage of the after-Christmas sales. I had almost forgotten what it was like to bundle up, walk into a shop, take off my coat, look around, bundle back up and go back out into the cold, stop at another shop and do it all over again. As much as I enjoyed it, I'm glad it only happens a few days throughout the year down here!

We're getting ready to start a new semester of school on Monday. I'm looking forward to it, in a strange sort of way. I'm really planning to do a much better job this semester than I did last. We're going to read more, explore more, and enjoy our time together more.

We have also started daily bibles and plan to read through them this year. I'm reading the Daily Bible in Chronoligical Order shown here: The NIV Daily Bible: In Chronological Order, Softcover - By: F. LaGard Smith - Christianbook.com. My 10 year old is reading the One Year Bible for Kids shown here: Amazon.com: The One Year Bible for Kids NLT: Books and my 7 year old is reading the Day by Day Kids bible shown here: Amazon.com: Day by Day Kid's Bible: The Bible for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids): Books: Karyn Henley. By the end of the year, we will have all read through the bible, which has never happened before. How exciting!

I have also started a new, healthier way of cooking for this year. Each night for dinner, I've used a new recipe out of Cooking Light's SuperFast Suppers cookbooks, shown here:
Amazon.com: Cooking Light Superfast Suppers: Speedy Solutions for Dinner Dilemmas (Cooking Light): Books: Anne C. Cain,Anne C... all of the meals so far have been winners - my hubby, my kids and even my father have all enjoyed them. We even had friends over last night with their 7 year old boy and everyone enjoyed the meal. I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone who is looking for easy, lighter recipes.

Well, it's getting late, so I'm going to close this post.

As always,

Have a blessed day!