2011/2012 Cirriculum

I'd like to share the curriculum we are using this year.

Emily:

A Beka Book, K5, Which we also used last school year.

LifePac, 1st grade, Science, Math, History, Language Arts

Drive Thru History: Columbus, the Pilgrims, and Early Boston

Rev Up for Learning

Character Builders

Amazing Bible Series

The Reading Lesson

All About Spelling

Starfall.com

Mark Kistler's Imagination Station, Online Art School

Megan

Switched on Schoolhouse, 8th Grade Science, History, Language Arts, Bible, 7th Grade Math

Visual Link Spanish

Mark Kistler's Imagination Station, Online Art School

I am also going to try a 30 Day Trial Membership at Homeschool Advantage. I will let you know how that goes.

It's That Time Again!

The new school year is right around the corner! New school years are new beginnings! Every year of homeschooling, you learn new things. If your lucky, like me, you meet other homeschooling mom's who are awesome and are an encouragement to you, or maybe you can encourage new homeschooling moms.

I am very excited to be joining a homeschool co-op this year as well as a homeschool group. I look forward to hopefully writing more in my blog, instead of fizzling out after five posts or so.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to do this.

Wishing you all a great school year! Hug your kids and tell them you love them everyday!

Well, It's been a while!

Well, It's been a while since I posted. But, things are just trucking along.

Megan is doing well in school overall. Just a little trouble with Math. The TXVA curriculum expects her to move really fast and they just don't allow very much time for her to grasp it because she has certain percentages that have to be done each week. She did so much better without all of the time constraints. I think I'll choose a different curriculum next year because I have so many textbooks that I just know she will love.

Emily is doing great in Math. I guess, for some reason, that Math just makes sense to her. She also does well in writing. Reading, however, is another story completely. We're still working on reading. I have so many great textbooks for her to, if we can just get the reading down.

It's been a great school year overall so far. God gave me the desire to home school for a reason. I love it and it's the one thing that I refuse to give up. It was a decision that we all made together, a decision I'm going to stick with it no matter what.

Finances and other things aren't so great, but we will work through them thanks to family and friends.

Well. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to write later. I had kinda forgotten about my blog until tonight.

Take Care & God Bless!

Fear or Faith?

A woman whom I greatly admire, who teaches the ladies bible study where I attend church, had such a great message this past Sunday that really made me think.

In her lesson, she posed the question, "Are you a forerunner or a hinderance?" So I had to think, and I deffinately don't consider myself a forerunner, so does that make me a hinderance? Maybe so.

Am I living my day to day life in fear of what I should be doing instead? Or am I living by faith?

I like to think that I have a lot of faith. I have faith that God will provide. I have faith that God will answer prayers. I have faith, right? But, do I have the kind of faith it takes to be a forerunner? I have faith in God, I don't have faith in myself.

I like to think of myself as more of an 'enabler'. While I may not be a forerunner, I am capable of helping others so that they can be forerunners. Does that count for something? Is it wrong to yell (hypothetically)..No! Don't send me; don't pick me...but hey...if you wanna go.....

I don't know. I'll let you know when I figure it out though!

Take Care & God Bless!
~Julie

A thought....

Do you ever look at other's and think to yourself....'How are their lives soo perfect?' Well....I do. I shouldn't, but I do. I've been working on changing my way of thinking for a while now and it's gotten a little better! So far, what works for me, is trying to be happy with myself...My way of being happy with myself? Shopping of course! LOL. I know how bad that sounds, but hey right now it works for me.

I know, I have a long way to go...I'll get there, eventually.

Ok, now that I have said that. Do you think their all looking at you and thinking the exact same thing? I'm learning that appearances can often be confusing; what seems to be isn't always the case. Lets face it, a lot of us are good at pretending/covering up; me included.

How can anyone know that you have a need if you never show it? Or maybe we don't want anyone to know? Do we keep on going like we're all perfect? is it ok to show other people that you have problems too? Do we really want people to know that we dance around the house and sing in the shower? Ok, maybe that last one is just me.

So my goal is to not worry about what other people have that I don't and to try not to make assumptions about other people's so called 'happiness' or what I view to be as 'perfection'. No one is perfect. I also have to learn that it's okay if someone knows all about my imperfections.

Thats all for now! I have an online learning lecture to try and get to!

Take Care All!
~Julie

What's Really Important/Summer Vacation Is Over!

It always happiens to me that I somehow end up chaning my mind about how I want to do something at the last minute. I think by now my kids are used to this and expect this, but my husband...My dear husband....God Bless him! He's ex-military and he just doesnt get it. "Change" isn't a word that he's added to his vocabulary yet...But I'm working on getting it in there!



It has become a tradition of mine that every year, around now, I obsess over our homeschool area and cirriculum. I have a section of our large living room dedicated as our classroom. This year however, at the last minute, I decided I wanted to flip my living room. I wanted basically the same room, only reversed. Little did I know that it would take as much work as it has! The walls where the tv/couch area were had to be washed, and I just had to think to myself...how was all this dirt hiding here? Then there was the issue with the cable tv outlet, which was now on the wrong side of the room.



Needless to say, my living room is now a mess! And because of the mess I've created, I am unabe to sleep; I won't be able to sleep until it's finished. I stayed up so late the last few nights that I crashed this morning and never got my family to church. Somehow, during all of this, I lost sight of what's really important.

I plan to start out new school year tomorrow and, with God's Grace, it's going to be a great beginning!

Lord, help me to never loose sight of whats really important again! Amen

Why We Homeschool

I home school because it was the right choice for my family and my circumstances. Everyone has different circumstances and not all children or all families are the same. Twelve years ago, if you had told me I would be homeschooling I would have never believed you, but circumstances changed and my oldest daughter needed help, and I wanted my happy child back. So her and I ventured into homeschooling together. This is only my 3rd year to home school, and let me tell you..It's been a great adventure!

I look forward to seeing what plans god has for my family and what this new school year holds!

I didn't think I could do it when I first started, because I thought homeschooling was for 'other' people. But we've somehow managed, with Gods Grace.

I know I'm right where I belong.

God Bless
~Julie