My son informed all his friends Wednesday night at church that he was "definitely being home-schooled next year!" This did not shock me in the least. I knew that he would be the one most likely to feel that way. He has had such a lot of homework, and he finds that to be quite inconveniencing. Imagine my shock when ,Sunday night, he said, "I can't wait until tomorrow." I asked why, and he replied to me: "Because I'm going to school." My only thought was --who are you and what have you done with my son? I have a feeling he and I will both be going back and forth all year on what to do next year!

Labels: Homeschool, Kids

I have three things to update you on today.

• First, we have decided to cancel the summer vacation in Gatlinburg and have re-scheduled for the first week of October. The kids will be on Fall Break then, and will only have to miss a couple days of school. I feel good about the decision, and have already made plans to do a couple things with the kids that are semi-local. I am looking forward to us all being together for vacation in the fall.
• Secondly, we got the kids achievement test scores back on Wednesday. Yay! My kids all did well. Sometimes, I wonder what in the world I worry so much about! There were some minor gaps in a couple subjects for one of my children, but we have devised a plan to take care of that this summer! I'm excited about that. They will be ready when August comes and it's time to head off to school--ahem...for the very first time.

• And thirdly, it is time to discuss the past week's successes and failures in the May Day Weight Challenge. Start weight: 137.9 This week: 137.1

I am not completely sure about my weight loss, but think it is down 1/2 pound. My new scales aren't as great as I thought they would be. I was very good this past week with my eating--in spite of a special Mother's Day German chocolate cake and my husband's birthday key lime pie. I stayed under my calorie goal except for 2 days--and I had exercised on one of those. I was able to exercise 4 times. I am running/walking and going to Curves.

Labels: Homeschool, Just Me, Kids

you are lying in bed at 11:00 at night with your husband, and you have Algebra I paraphernalia lying all around you, and you are discussing things like y-intercept, slope, domain, range, and linear equations. Your husband is also working out the problems and trying to get them straight in his head so that he can somehow, someway, get it into our daughter's head! And you are both thanking God for www.purplemath.com . Yes indeed. The hardest part is that she wants to know why she needs to know all this stuff. When will she ever use this in life? The truth is--probably never--so, tell me, why are we still up? I'm quite sure this never happens in "NORMAL" families. Normal people are sleeping or, at least, doing something a little more fun!! Private school, here we come!

Labels: Homeschool

We had a lovely time yesterday. The kids really enjoyed the movie--B. and I thought it a little lame! I did like the way they wrapped everything up though--and it did have a positive message of "not giving up"! You can read a great review of it here. (Meet the Robinson's) The kids are heading out to Homeschool PE in a couple hours. This program at the YMCA has been such a blessing to our family. PE is the thing my kids look the most forward to all week. The leader is a precious homeschooling mom who takes fitness very seriously. She is very sanguine and loves to make everything fun for the kids. We are sad that we will not be going back after this year. Anyway, every year in April, we have the Home-school Olympics. The kids are broken down into different teams --and they compete against each other in various games--many traditional Olympic games--like javelin throwing and the long jump! It's a blast for the kids all month long. The older kids are the team captains and they paint a lovely banner to represent their team and they come up with their own team cheer. In the past, the teams have been named things like "Crete", "Troy," "Sparta", and "Athens". This year, for a change, they picked names of mountains--the Matterhorn and K-3 are two that were chosen this year! At the opening ceremonies, we have the running of the torch ( a real torch that was actually carried in the Olympics), the presenting of the teams, their banners,and their cheers--and an opening basketball game. The closing ceremonies are the greatest though. This is really made into a big deal. We sing the Star Spangled Banner, the kids always perform a human video of some sort, and the gold, silver, and bronze medals are given out in each category. Every child gets a medal and their faces are always beaming. I am so glad that we have been blessed to be a part of this program for 4 years now. I know it will be one of my kids most precious memories from our years spent home-schooling. I have no earthly idea why this picture posted this way--oh well!

Labels: Homeschool, Kids

After achievement tests and a totally unplanned lunch at Backyard Burger with daddy, we took a spontaneous trip down the road to Tupelo, Mississippi! We decided we needed some new Easter duds and headed out! This had to be a whirl-wind trip because we were leaving town at noon and had to be back in town by 6 pm. We had a fine time shopping for new spring clothes--well, except that time in the dressing room when I had to face the fact that I needed a larger size in my dress--you can only suck in so far, you know!On the way there we pulled off at the Elvis birthplace exit. I am such an Elvis fan and I know it is not hip and cool to be an Elvis fan, but I can't help it. It's in my genes. K is a big fan too, only she prefers to keep it a secret--oops, guess I screwed that up! Sorry K.

Labels: Family, Homeschool, Kids

So, this was the week I had put aside to review the school year and prepare for achievement tests. I, of course, am the only one in the household nervous about this. Not one single child has the decency to be concerned! All three kids will be going to school next week in order to take the SAT. Our private, Christian school has very kindly let us do that a couple times now. Every year, I am a nervous wreck (in a joyful kind of way, of course) and pack as much review into the week as I can. I go to BAM (Books a Million) and buy the practice test books for their respective grades and we go through the whole thing. I am able to see areas they are weaker in and the ones they are excelling in. Of course, all this ever really tells me is what I already knew about each child. One struggles with math and spelling, another struggles with parts of speech, etc. When you are a homeschooling mom, you tend to know these things pretty easily. And with just a week, there isn't much time to do anything about the weaker areas anyway. So, I must just leave it to the Lord, knowing that I have done my best and it's too late to fret now. If I was going to fret, I should have done it much, much sooner! :) I will feel so much better Monday when I know there is nothing else I can do. I will get up early, drive them to school (good practice for next year), pray for them on the way, drop them off, and leave it all in God's hands. Which is exactly what I should be doing at this moment--leaving it in God's hands, I mean!

Labels: Homeschool, Kids