Wedgie-Free

It's back-to-school time around the country and that means back-to-school sales abound in the stores. Not only do I like to stock up on deeply discounted school supplies this time of year, but I also like to replenish the family's supply of undergarments. Last week, after having made my selections and heading to the checkout of Target, I was putting Luci's new undies on the conveyor belt when a bright little sticker caught my attention. I hadn't noticed it on the shelf, or when I picked it up and tossed it in the shopping cart. Frankly, there were only three things I was paying attention to: that they were "normal" panties and not itty bitty bikini cut, that the price was right, and the size was right. Into the shopping cart they went. But at the checkout I caught sight of the little sticker that read:

Wedgie-Free

I'm not kidding, in fact, you can visit www.wedgiefree.com to check them out. Now, Luci has a problem with wedgies, so this was great news. I showed her the little sticker and whispered to her what it said. She made a little fist, raised it in the air, then pumped it to her side in a gesture that indicated this was fantastic!

Fast forward a week later. During karate class Luci noticed that one of her Senseis was having a problem with a wedgie. As he picked at the back of his pants struggling to undo what was obviously uncomfortable. Luci looked up at him and said, "I have wedgie-free panties."

Sensei Darryl, trying very hard to hold in his laughter replied, "That's good, but I don't."

Of Board Games and Megalodons

I uploaded photos from my camera today. This is usually something I do fairly frequently, two or three times a week. But since it had been about three weeks I had some pictures I'd forgotten about and wanted to share. 

Taken on my cell phone...I forgot the REAL camera.

We went to the science museum one day last week. (This was obviously during one of the lulls between viral outbreaks at my house.) The traveling exhibit at our science museum this season is Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived. And wow, that set of chompers is indeed impressive! The jaw you see in this picture belongs to a 60-foot long megalodon. Can you imagine how much food a shark this size needed? How about 2,500 pounds of food a day!


Got tuna?

After a science lesson on birds and habitats Luci decided to spend her break outside studying and drawing "some of God's nature". This girl really has a heart for Jesus and it shines through in her words, actions, and drawings every day. It is so precious to hear her singing songs of praise, either songs she's learned at church or sometimes even words she's made up on her own. Luci received believer's baptism by immersion in our church a couple of weeks ago. We had questions and concerns about her age, but our pastor reminded us that Jesus said it best:

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

All of Suzy's pups, except one, have finally gone on to their new homes. That leaves us with our Memphis who is already starting to fit in to our family perfectly. He loves to sit with us, any ol' lap will do as long as it's warm and soft. In this photo you see his head peeking out from under the lap desk that Gavin is using for his math work. What a cutie! 

If your ever interested in knowing how to make Ben happy, how to brighten his day, and win his heart...  For such a complex kid, the answer is surprisingly simple. 


Play a board game with him. 


He likes it best when he wins (what kid doesn't?), but he isn't a sore loser. He just wants to spend time playing games with the people he loves. It's hard to resist him when he asks you to play. Usually he has such a sweet tone to his voice and will fatten up his request with a kiss or a big hug. Who could say no to that?

Shifting the Weight

If you stopped by my blog yesterday you might have picked up on the fact that I was feeling a little frazzled and overwhelmed with all that has been laid (dropped, tossed, threw) at my feet the last few weeks. If you'd been here in my home you might have picked up on it when you heard my short temper and cries of frustration. 

Sometime yesterday afternoon I sat down to catch up on a little blog reading. I enjoy reading the blogs of other homeschoolers because the glimpse into their lives often reassures me that I am not alone. There is something affirming about knowing that others go through the same things that you do. And they make it through. I also enjoy other homeschooler's blogs because of the wealth of ideas and information that I obtain. 

But yesterday I received something more from a homeschooler's blog. I received a blessing.  As I began reading this post, by Angie-The Pebblekeeper, the similarities to my own feelings struck me. I'm not alone. Someone else is struggling under the weight of it all. But it didn't stop there. Angie's post directed me to a blog called a holy experience and the post, How to Read the Scales and Find Your Perfect Weight. As I read the words there I felt the weight shift from my shoulders. 

The joy of living a life for Christ, the beauty of the world, and the privilege of being called mother far outweigh the bad. And what's even more precious, those burdens, these weights we carry around: He will carry them for us if we let Him. 

Monday Musings July 26

I was reminded almost daily by my best friend (Thanks Marleen!) that I hadn't posted last week. I started to--several times, in fact. By Friday I had four drafts, but still no complete posts. Why? Well, Marleen would tell you that it was because I was too busy daydreaming about my cruise that's coming up in September. And while that could be partly true, it was also just a rough week for me.

The mysterious, flu-like, illness that invaded my home a few weeks back has now run through all three of my children. Gavin is still glued to the couch in a fever induced fog. Brian and I wait, hoping and praying that this is just a "kid" illness, that we will be spared from five or six days of fever, weeping-watery eyes, congestion, diarrhea, and nausea.

A fellow homeschooler posted the question on Facebook one day this week: What is your homeschool vision? I know it's a serious question, that deserves a serious answer. But all I could think as I read the question was that our first three weeks of the 2010-2011 school year were NOT what I envisioned. On top of taking care of sick kids we've been trying to potty train our puppy. My days have ended up a flurry of thermometers, puppy piddle pads, ibuprofen, doctor visits, chewed up toys, and increased demands on the laundry. And between all of that I've tried to carry on with school as usual. AS IF anything about the past three weeks has been usual!

To make things worse, in my mind at least, I have this insane need to have my children all working on the same day in our schedule. In other words, if we are on the 15th day of school, I want them all to be on day 15. It's even better if they match up to the day of the week on my printed schedules. My schedule is a mess now with all three kids at different points in their school and it is driving me crazy! Why should it matter? It matters because as each week's schedule is finished I have to rotate it out of my weekly binder, and replace it with the new schedule and all of the coordinating materials we'll need. If they are all at different points, this means I'm having to work on binders and schedules three times a week instead of one. Right now, Luci is on day 12, Ben is on day 10, and Gavin is on day 15. And it doesn't make me happy.

I'm going to spend this week playing catch up. Originally, I had planned to take this week off as we were had intended to spend part of it at the Neshoba County Fair. But since we aren't able to go this year (because we have a small puppy who's not ready for a kennel and now because of the plague that has taken over my house) I'm going to use this time to get everyone on the same column in my schedule. It will make the world just a little bit better if I do.

Review: Travel the World

It's time for my first review as a part of TOS Homeschool Crew! I am really excited to share this product with you because it was a wonderful way to introduce geography to my younger students and to review with my oldest. Travel the World is part of the Schoolhouse Planner Module collection. It is a downloadable ebook and very simple to use. Once I downloaded the ebook I printed it out and put it in a binder. This step is optional, of course, I just prefer to read books in print instead of on the computer screen. After printing it I discovered that if I strictly used the printed version of my ebook I was going to miss out on some spectacular internet links. So we ended up using the ebook in a combination of print and online.

The first portion of the ebook is full of great information. My children enjoyed learning about how to use a globe and read a map and they enjoyed learning about climate zones and the continents that make up our world. As we read we often clicked on the links that were included. The links included great illustrations, explanations, and interactive games and quizes. What a fun way to reinforce what we were learning! The internet is such a valuable tool in our homeschool and having the links already there for us was a huge time saver. As we worked through the ebook I printed off the map pages for my kids to label and color.

Gavin thought it important to label the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

My students enjoyed this TOS Homeschool Crew module from TOS Schoolhouse Store. It is available for purchase for $7.95, which is a very reasonable price considering the time saving links. I recommend this to any family wishing to spend a little time on geography, whether it's to review or introduce the subject. The ebook is designed to be appropriate for students of all ages, and does indeed include activity sheets or expansion activities for high-school students, however I found that in general, it was geared more toward my younger children.

I received this product for free as a member of TOS Homeschool Crew. My opinions are solely my own and are not influenced in any way. I am not being reimbursed in anyway for this review.

Making the Grade

Today's question over at The Homeschool Village is:

What grade would you give yourself and what grade did the kiddos give you!


At the end of each school year as I am filing away school papers and storing our books I take the time to do a survey with each of my kids. I ask them questions like: 

• What was your favorite part of the school year?
• What did you like the least this year?
• If you could be the teacher what would you do differently?
• How would you make school more fun?
• Share with me a few things you learned this year?

And I also give each of them a strip of paper with the numbers one thru ten written down the length of the paper and a sticker. After explaining that ten means "I have the most awesome teacher in the whole world!" and one means "My teacher was terrible!" They always snicker at that one and then act like they are going to put their stickers there. 

This year's surveys revealed that all of my kids loved our science and history lessons. Ben thought his math papers were too long, and Gavin thought math was just boring. Ben's suggestions were to have more breaks and less school days. Um, yeah, that's not going to happen, Ben. Gavin didn't think there were any changes we needed to make, and Luci felt the same way. They were all able to share a few things they learned. The rating strips clearly indicated that they all love their teacher and she was pretty awesome--with marks of two nines and a ten. High praise! 

I am a little harder on myself, however. The grade I give myself, would probably be a B- or a C+. 

The areas I always find that I need to improve are:

Organization--Implementing a filing system, or a way to keep up with the massive amounts of paperwork produced  by homeschooling, isn't so hard. It's the follow through part that I get hung up on. The best filing system in the world won't work well if I let papers stack up in check-in boxes before I grade and file them. I'm doing things a little differently this year though, and so far it is working well. This is an area that I have to get right this year since I'll soon be heading into high-school territory. I can't imagine the nightmare that creating a transcript will be if I don't have paperwork in order. 

Including the Fun Stuff--One of the advantages to homeschooling is being able to customize my kids education experience--to provide them with the right amount of information and give them  fun and interesting ways to process and retain that information. The world wide web is overflowing with creative ideas to help homeschool parents do just that. By mid-year I'm finding that we are often so swamped with just getting through the core stuff that fitting in the notebooking, lapbooking, projects, and other experiences is next to impossible. I end up feeling guilty because out of the thousands of ideas out there, I might be using a fraction of a percent of them. I really want to start lapbooking with Luci this year because she just thrives on that kind of thing. My plan is to start slow! 

Patience--Dealing with adolescent and pre-adolescent attitudes and five year old tantrums can wear me thin sometimes. When this happens it's easy to lose patience with my children. I never threaten to send them to school on the big yellow bus... but I can't say that thought doesn't cross my mind from time to time. 

Another Kids Say...

Rosie is a black and brown rottweiler pup, of the Ty Beanie Baby variety. It's currently Luci's favorite stuffed animal so she frequently asks me if Rosie can come along when we go places. I will often let her bring Rosie but sometimes the rule is that Rosie has to stay in my purse so she doesn't wander off and get lost. 

Last night as Luci was getting ready for her daddy to take her to karate she asked me if Rosie could come to class with her. I told her that puppies weren't allowed in the dojo so she'd better just stay at home. She asked me then if Rosie could just stay in my purse. Since I wasn't the one taking her to karate, I told her that her Daddy was taking her. She replied, "Well, he can carry a man-purse!"

Where does she come up with this stuff? 

More Sickness

Whatever virus plagued Luci so badly last week has now infected Ben. He woke up Tuesday morning with a sore throat and by mid morning his temperature had climbed to 102.7. It's pretty much the same for him as it was for Luci (fever, sore throat, with a little bit of nausea & vomiting), except for Ben the infection is also in his eye.

So again, I'm doing school this week with just two kids, taking temperatures and dispensing Tylenol between phonics and pre-algebra lessons. My school year is off to a pretty rotten start!

Monday Musings July 12

Wellness
After spending nearly a full week with a constant fever, sore throat and tummy ache, Luci is finally better. We still have no idea what mysterious ailment she had, but we are grateful it's gone, and no one else came down with it. We are back at the business of school today, with a 100% well family.

Balancing Act (aka Time Management)
In the spring I agreed to be website administrator for our local homeschool group of nearly 300 families. In addition to the website, I will also be managing the membership.

Also in the spring I tried out for TOS Homeschool Crew, and got a spot on the 2010-2011 Crew. (I tried out for another writing position as well, but it may be a blessing I didn't get that one at this time!) 

Brian and I agreed to teach Sunday School for another year. We've been teaching a class of 3rd thru 5th graders for a year now, and when our year was up, we found we didn't want to quit. 

Brian and I will also be leading a co-op this year. We are putting together a Design Squad group which will consist of about 8-10 kids (mostly middle school) from our town.

As a result of these new (or renewed) demands on my time I am finding it more and more important to be mindful of how I am spending my time. I take all of my commitments very seriously, and give my best effort to anything I take on. Thankfully, I was blessed with a laid-back personality and am not one that is easily stressed or prone to bouts of anxiety (although I think there is a possibility that this year might put that to the test more so than ever). Later this week I will share some of my strategies for managing my time!


Project Grocery Bill
At the end of last month I bravely added up our total food costs for the month of June. It was an astonishingly high number. One day, I might be brave enough to share that amount with you, but for now, let's just say it was way more than the USDA's estimated food costs per person, even for the so called 'thrifty' plan. The really sad part is I thought we were doing ok on food costs. We don't eat out a lot, compared to many folks we know. We have dinner out as a family about 3 times a month, usually to somewhere reasonably priced. And the kids and I will get lunch out on a Friday when we are running errands or, during the school year, on our way to a park day or co-op class. Dinner out for a family of five adds up fairly quickly though, even when your trying to be economical. Surprisingly however, it wasn't our eating out that drove up our monthly food expenses. It was the mid-week trips to the grocery store for miscellaneous things, things I'd either forgotten to get, or things I'd run out of. Usually, the list just had one or two things on it, but inevitably the bags came home with nine or ten items instead--things we could have done without. These trips added about $75-100 per week to our grocery bill. This realization was pretty eye opening and I keep thinking of how much money we are wasting by doing this.
So, I've started Project Grocery Bill in our home. My goal is to start by trimming at least $50 from our weekly grocery budget. I'm keeping detailed receipts, trying very hard to stay out of the grocery store between big shopping trips, clipping coupons and trying be wise with each grocery store dollar. I'll let you know how it goes! What things do you do to try and keep your grocery bill down?

Puppies

The pups are 6 weeks old today. 

From left to right they are: 

Bear, Lil' Man (aka Midnight), Junior, and Memphis

Junior and Bear will be going to their new homes this weekend. 

I can't say I'm sad about this. 

They sure are making a mess! 

But, they are awfully cute!

Why Start Now?

Our first week of the 2010-2011 school year was a week punctuated by doctor visits, temperature taking, and medication dispensing. It was also marked with explanations to neighbors, friends, and family of why I choose to start school in July, while the rest of the kids in our area are still enjoying their summer. I've also heard that question from my middle child quite a lot this week as well. He has friends on our street who have still another month of summer vacation left and he doesn't like it very much that he's doing school work while they are playing XBox.

Of course, like all things having to do with homeschooling, every family has to do what works for them. There are as many different ways to homeschool as there are homeschool families. Some of the homeschool families I know choose to school sticking closely to the 9 month school calendar, using their summers for sewing or crafting projects, household projects, and other things they might find hard to fit in amongst their school days. Or it might be just because they need that three month summer break to recharge their battery and get prepared for another year.

I have a few reasons for having a shorter summer and starting school early and I'll share them with you today.

Flexibility
To be honest, one of the biggest draws to this kind of schedule is the ability to take vacations off-season. The lines are shorter and the rates are lower. When we went to Disney World, we went during the month of September. Kids across the country had just started back to school so there were virtually no lines for the rides. The longest line we waited in was about five minutes. Often, we were able to get off of a ride and then get right back on. We rode Expedition Everest no fewer than twelve times one day at The Animal Kingdom. We were also at Disney World at a time when we could take advantage of one of Disney's most appealing offers...lower rates AND free dining!

Because of our schedule we are also able to take advantage of things like spring or fall camping trips when the weather isn't so hot. Camping in the deep south in the middle of a summer heat wave is not my idea of a good time!

But aside from vacations and camping trips, our flexible schedule has other benefits. We've been known to decide at 8 am that it's just too pretty outside to do school. When the weather is gorgeous and the temperature is perfect we take a "Sun Day". Or we might decide that today looks like a museum day or a zoo day. Because we have such a flexible schedule we have the freedom to take days off of our book work without worrying about whether we are getting behind.

Routines
Yes, it can be hard to listen to the plaintive cries of my middle child as he is tormented by the sight of his friends walking down the driveway with their shoulders slumped after being told he couldn't play. But, let's face it. I need routine. My kids need routine. Ben, particularly, needs routine. Without it everything around us is chaos. Maybe it's a personality flaw of mine, I don't know. But the fact is, I get more done when our days are ordered.

Please don't feel sorry for Ben, though, as you imagine his angst over doing school while his friends play. The mom of his friends (they are brothers) is kind enough to keep them from knocking on the door any further during school hours and, even better, she makes them wait until the afternoon for fun things like balloon fights and swimming in the swimming pool. Every afternoon this week, as soon as Ben was finished with school and chores, he made a bee-line to his friends' house for some summer fun!

Continuity of Learning
Because we never stop for longer than about six weeks, there's not a long summer break over which to lose or become weak in certain skills. Most textbooks have about 4-8 weeks of review built into them to compensate for summer gap. By not taking a long summer break, we are usually able to breeze through these or skip them altogether. This makes a year round schedule a little more efficient for us.

Girls Love Loops

Luci is feeling more like herself today. She started the day with a little fever, but since then she's been fever free. Other than being a little sniffly, she seems to be on the mend. This has been one nasty virus! We are still waiting on the throat culture, hoping to find out what she's had.

She wanted to do school today so she's been busy with her new first grade materials. Today we:

Got Started with Phonics
Luci is using Abeka's phonics and reading program. Today was just a bit of review for her. She's anxious to start working in her colorful new workbooks.

Began working on memorizing a poem
The first poem we're working on is The Elephant, Author Unknown.

The elephant walks like this and like that.

He's very tall, 

and he's very fat. 

He has no fingers,

but he does have toes, 

And goodness gracious, 

What a nose!

Worked on some math
Using flashcards we worked on learning number words today.

When she was putting her name on her math paper I noticed she was taking a particularly long time to do so. I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "Mom, What? I'm a girl. I love loops!"

Learned about habitats and instincts. 

Ben and Luci are both using Exploring Creation with Zoology this year. Today they learned about habitats and instincts.  

Read about Indians
As I've mentioned, we are all studying American History this year. Of course, what each of the kids are expected to learn is dependent on their age. Today Luci learned about the first apartment buildings in America, which were built by Pueblo Indians. And using Google, we looked at what these first buildings might have looked like.

Winner

The winner of the Brain Quest: America set is Lisa.

Lisa said...
I am a new follower!

Congratulations, Lisa! Thanks to everyone who entered!

200th Post Giveaway

Today, because this is my 200th post...
I am having my first ever giveaway on my blog!

Brain Quest: America

I first discovered Brain Quest in the dentist office one day, where the preschool questions kept my preschooler interested the entire hour we sat there waiting on her brothers. Let's just say, every doctor or dentist's office should include a few decks of Brain Quest cards! But since that's not likely to happen...every mom's arsenal of kid entertainment or educational items should contain a few decks of Brain Quest.

This America set has 850 questions about America, its people, its history, and its culture. If your studying American history this year, or if you just like American trivia, this deck is for you!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment! Winner will be chosen randomly.

Bonus entries for: becoming a follower of this blog (or if your already a follower) or for blogging about this giveaway. Leave a comment for each entry. Your comment is your entry. If you do not comment with your google ID please make sure you include your email address so I can contact you.

This giveaway will end on July 7 at 11 pm (central).

(I am not affiliated with Brain Quest and they are not supplying this product for me.)

P.S. Blogger has been a little squirrelly the last couple of days with comments. I always receive email notification of comments, but sometimes they are not showing up on the blog site. Rest assured, if your comments shows up in my email but not on my blog, you will still be included in the giveaway.

It Was Pretty Good, For a First Day

Fans of the Jurassic Park movies might remember the quote from John Hammond where, expressing disappointment in the first dinosaur park tour, he says, "So much for our first tour- two no shows and one sick triceratops!" Our day wasn't all that bad, but we did have one sick little girl on our first day of school. Daddy swooped in to the rescue, taking her to the doctor for me, so that I could carry on with our first school day as planned--sans one kid.

History/Geography
We are studying American History again this year, and this time all three kids are studying the same topic. Using Sonlight's Cores 3 and 100 along with various resources pulled in from time to time, I hope that this is a great year! Today, we began by studying the earliest Americans--the Native Americans--and learned that historians believe they may have come here by crossing over the Bering Strait. Our history texts this week are History of US, Book 1, by Joy Hakim and North American Indians, by Marie and Douglas Gorsline. Our accompanying read aloud is Walk the World's Rim by Betty Baker, a book that Gavin and I are excited to be reading again and sharing with Ben and Luci.
We are also incorporating geography into our history studies. For this, we are using one of the items I received to review for TOS Homeschool Crew: an e-book titled Travel the World. (Look for my review on July 19.) Today the boys labeled a world map, marking the continents and oceans. Gavin thought it important to label the oil spill on the map as well.

Science
Ben and Luci are working together this year in Exploring Creation with Zoology. Putting the two of them together helps me make a little bit better use of my time. Today, however, Luci was barely able to listen in. She was in and out of sleep with a fever of about 102 at the time.

Ben moved along though, working on his first notebook page about zoology and taxonomy. 

Gavin is using General Science by Dr. Jay Wile for seventh grade science this year. His text started off with a little history of science and an introduction to the course. This is Gavin's first year to use a text-book for science. Our previous years have been spent using a variety of living books and encyclopedia (think Usborne) type books. I think the conversational tone of this book will be a good first-text introduction for him. He began working on his science notebook today. This will be where he keeps a record of reading summaries,  new vocabulary words, observations, and experiments.

Language Arts
We've made big changes in language arts this year. After four years of using Sonlight's language arts we're using something different. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, we just needed a change of pace. Second, Sonlight's writing assignments were not providing the boys with enough intruction. For grammar both boys are using Abeka's grammar texts (Ben is using Language A and Gavin is using Grammar and Composition I). We are only using the grammar portions of the texts, however, and are skipping over the writing parts. For writing we are using IEW's Student Writing Intensive B. Gavin gave this a hearty thumbs-up today and for the first time ever writing was near the list of his favorite things he did in school today! That's a pretty good accomplishment, Mr. Pudewa! Gavin said, finally, someone understands how he feels and the way his brain works when it comes to writing. I am hoping to have the opportunity soon to watch the teacher DVDs that go along with this course.

Math
Another area that has big changes this year is math. The boys are using Saxon Math this year. Gavin started in Saxon 8/7. This was a big jump for him, coming from Teaching Textbooks Math 6, which seemed to be almost a year below Mississippi's math standards. We bridged the gap with some pretty intensive study using Aleks math. He started today with some basic review and a timed math facts sheet, which he did fairly well on. Ben is using Saxon 5/4, which seems to be a parallel move for him, coming from a little better than halfway through Horizon's Math 3. Both boys are using the Dive CDs with their math texts. These CDs are like having a math instructor on staff. So far, I like what I see of both the Saxon products and the Dive CDs. I'm hopeful for a good math year!

Readers and Literature
Ben's first reader is The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoades. I was a bit indecisive as to whether to put him on the advanced readers schedule or the regular readers schedule. The difference is not in the reading level of the books, but is in the amount of reading assigned each day. With Gavin there was no question, he was a voracious reader at that age and read as much as I could give him. While Ben reads well, he doesn't love to read (no matter how hard I try) unless it means staying up past bedtime reading in bed.  I opted to go ahead and put him on the advanced schedule anyway, thinking that we can always drop back if we need to.

Gavin's first literature selection is a biography, Cameron Townsend: Good News in Every Language by Janet and Geoff Benge. But in addition to this, he is also reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book he started a few weeks ago.

In all, today went smoothly. It might have had a little to do with Luci being sick...after all, there was one less kid thrown into the school mix. She was content to nap off and on all day on the big red recliner. I asked Gavin what he thought of today and he said, "It was pretty good, for a first day." That's high praise, as far as I'm concerned...cause we've had some pretty bad first days!

Hopefully, Luci will feel better tomorrow and can have her first day of first grade.

Alert!
Tomorrow will be my 200th post on this blog and I'll be celebrating with a special giveaway! Be sure to check back.

A Glimpse at our 2010-2011 School Room

Our new school year will start tomorrow so I've been busy the past few days getting things in place. Our curriculum has been in place for a few weeks, but as any homeschooler knows, there is so much more to preparing than just ordering the new curriculum!

Each year we homeschool brings new challenges and demands on our schedule and this year is no exception. With Gavin nearing high school record-keeping is becoming more important. And of course, as each of my children grow older their subjects grow more in-depth. It is also a continually changing effort to accommodate special needs when they arise.

Here is a look at our school room and a few of the organizational tools we'll be using this year.

First, I'll share our chore center. Of course, it's not technically academic in nature, but it helps things run smoothly. Each year (and often mid-year) I take a look at the chores they've been doing and decide which ones they need to continue doing and what new responsibilities they are ready for. This year, Gavin asked me to take down his Accountable Kids system. He, instead, will have a simple list of his daily responsibilities broken down into categories. Luci and Ben's Accountable Kids systems both contain only their personal needs and family service chores right now. I'll give them a week or so to get used to the new routine before I add in their chores that earn money.

This is our new check-in system. Each of the kids have a wall file with their name on it. These are to be used for tests, writing assignments, and any other assignment that is not a notebook or workbook assignment. I have to share that I'm anticipating a difficult time keeping these limited to only what I've mentioned. They have been hanging on the wall for about 3 weeks now and I've already had to clean beanie babies, chalk, arts & crafts projects, and water bottles out of them. I guess it's just because they are in a convenient spot for discarding items. Who knows!

Workboxing is something I introduced into our homeschool last year. It was very successful, particularly for Ben, and with some modifications we are doing it again this year. Instead of using the small file box with file folders we'll be using these storage carts with 10 large drawers. The great thing about these drawers is that they hold any size book, even the large Apologia Sciences that don't fit in most storage towers. (For those interested: I purchased these at Sam's Club for $29.99)

Gavin was not particularly fond of the workboxes as we used them last year so he asked to use a checklist instead of a workbox. His first days' school books are on his desk and ready to go.

As our homeschool spreads every year I always have to make some accommodations to fit it all in. For years we used our dining room table exclusively to do our school work. But as the kids have grown they need a personal space in which to do their work. Fitting this all into a three bedroom house is rather like fitting store-bought electronics back into their original packaging. It just doesn't fit! So, this year we've had to expand a bit into our family room. It was a slightly oversized room (compared to the overall size of our house) to start with, so we did have a bit to work with. After shifting our living room furniture down by about two feet we had a small area behind the sofa in which to expand our school stuff. This area has Luci's desk (in the foreground), Gavin's desk (in the background) and the workboxes (in the middle ground).

Ben's desk is going to be the table I set up earlier in the spring. Originally, this desk area was supposed to work for both boys, but asking them to share this desk begged for trouble. I'm not positive this arrangement of things will work in the long run. I'm not happy having our homeschool take up so much important space in our home, this area is part of the entrance to my home. I'm trying to resign myself to the fact that homeschooling IS our lifestyle (yes, even after all these years I still have to remind myself of that) and if that means it's on display for all who visit my home, then so be it. But that line of thinking isn't very easy to cement in my mind when almost half of my family room is taken up with desks and storage drawers.

I have to include the main area of our school room. This is an older photo--but things are still essentially the same with the one exception being all of the books are different. I am still grateful to have this, built by my Dad and Brian, in our dining room. Housing our computers, current school books, and supplies, this has been a great addition to our school room!

Check back soon to see how our first day of school goes!

Karate Kids

Ben has been taking karate for about a year and a half now. He's progressed through a number of tests and worked his way up to a blue belt with a green stripe. He's halfway to a black belt! Luci started karate a few weeks ago after completing a year of ballet. Tonight she had her first belt test; which, in this form of karate (Shohei ryu),  adds the yellow stripe to a white belt.

She's worked hard and practiced a lot to pass her test.

Her teacher says that she pays really good attention in class, especially for a child her age. 

I am very proud of her for working hard and earning her stripes.

But what I'm most proud of is the interaction between my two younger children after she passed her test. Ben gave her a big hug and congratulated her on doing a good job. He was genuinely happy for his sister. This was honey to my heart! 

Introducing My TOS Mini-Crew

As most of you know already, I am on TOS Homeschool Crew this year and will be receiving a number of homeschool products to use in our homeschool this year and I'll be sharing our experience with you. The TOS Homeschool Crew has a large number of crew mates and so to make things easy the newbies are assigned to a First Mate with experience on the Crew. Each First Mate and his/her crew are a Mini-Crew.

I'd like to introduce you to my First Mate, Nikki, who blogs at Joy In the Journey.

And my three Mini-Crew Mates:

Shannon, who blogs at Mountaineer Country

Hilary, who blogs at Making a Home

Linda, who blogs at Sunshine to Flowers

Staycation Day #5: The One That Ends It

On our fifth day of staycation Brian decided to take the kids fishing. They loaded up the fishing poles and a sack full of snacks and water and headed south to Calling Panther Lake. The boat is not quite ready to go in the water so they did some pier fishing. Ben out-fished them all, catching 4 or 5 fish to everyone else's zero!

It didn't stop Luci and Gavin from giving it their best effort! And of course Luci never ever whined and cried, "When am I going to catch a fish?" or, "Why aren't the fish eating MY bait?" Nope, she would never do that. Nuh-uh, not her.

Ok, maybe she would. But she still had a good time.

Our last restaurant night's theme was Italian. I originally planned to make Chicken Parmigiana, but had to take a detour and make pizzas instead. Gavin assisted me in making four varieties of pizza: pepperoni, cheese, pineapple & ham, and pepperoni with bell pepper (Fresh from Gavin's Garden!).

Our staycation is over now. Would I do it again? Yes. While it doesn't hold a candle to other vacations we've taken in the past--the mountains, the beach, Disney World--it was a nice change of pace from our daily grind. And seemingly, just what we needed to end our 6 weeks of summer break. We did this staycation primarily because we are taking care of puppies and traveling would have been all but impossible. We also did this because we had a large vacation in March (the mountains) and will have another in September (a cruise thanks to my wonderful mother and father in law). 

Top Ten Best Things About a Staycation

1. No packing
2. The kids aren't dragging us into souvenir shops everywhere we go
3. The beds are comfortable
4. We didn't forget to pack anything
5. No rest stops necessary
6. No one asked "How much farther?"
7. We didn't need to pay the doggie hotel
8. The van doesn't need to be cleaned out
9. We never needed MapQuest
10. No UNpacking

Now it's time to turn my focus towards school! We start our 2010-2011 school year on July 5. Look for blog posts about some new organizing tools in my school room and our new schedules. Also, coming soon will be the first review for TOS Homeschool Crew. 

Staycation Day #4: The One That Was Truly Relaxing

You know that feeling when you come home from a big vacation? Whether its a so-called relaxing beach vacation or a high-energy theme park type vacation, do you get that feeling that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation? I don't think that will be a problem with this staycation. We spent the fourth day of our staycation right here at our house doing pretty much nothing all day. I did take care of a little desk work for CHEC, our homeschool group, and a few other little things around the house. But it was a relaxing day for all of us.

Our dinner theme was a burger joint, Burgers by Brian. Grilled hamburgers, french fries and some steamed green beans were on the menu along with ice cream for dessert. 

After dinner we brought out the board games. Ben wanted to play Sorry, so that was our first choice. Luck was on my side as I quickly brought the game to an end in the fastest win ever in what is usually a pretty long game. After Sorry we played Clue. The first round of Clue proved it was Professor Plum, in the library with the candlestick. Gavin was the winner! The second round, which Brian won, proved it was Colonel Mustard in the ballroom with the revolver!

We have just one more day left on our staycation! See you tomorrow!