Struggling with math...

Math was never my favorite subject in school. It seems like all of my life I've personally struggled with this subject. Because of this I really did my best to prepare my kids to do their best in this subject. Until this year it seemed to have worked. However, this is the year that we started Algebra 1. I loved algebra in school. It was the first time I felt like I truly understood math after so many years of struggling. I actually got an A and enjoyed it so much I decided to take an additional year of math that I wasn't required to take. I should have known better because I took geometry and totally didn't understand that one little bit! Haley is struggling with algebra this year. She has always struggled with math. She probably hates it more than I ever did. But, she's better at it than I was, she doesn't like doing it. For the first time in several years we decided to try something different. We changed to Teaching Textbooks. We are longtime users of Saxon math. Its basic, boring, black and white, but it really gets the job done. But due to the fact that the kids are getting older, I wanted them to be able to do things themselves without me. So, I chose Teaching Textbooks.

The program is great and I love the fact that I don't have to be involved. That part is AMAZING! It really works beautifully for my boys who are in 7th grade. The few times that they've had some question with something they learned, I was able to take a quick look and explain. Easy peasy. Not so with Haley. Its been YEARS since I took algebra! I really don't remember how to do any of it anymore. When she gets stuck I can't just take a look and help her out. Algebra doesn't work like that. My math guru hubby can, but I just can't. So, we have a problem. He's a work when she gets stuck and unless I want to go back and take every single lesson she's already done, and then watch every lesson with her (which defeats the whole purpose of using Teaching Textbooks), we're stuck. This has led to many, many frustrating days. If we're having this many problems with Algebra 1, I shudder to think about doing geometry and algebra 2! Not sure where this leaves us. We may end up back with me teaching Saxon again. I really, really don't want to though. It is so much nicer to have the kids do things on their own letting somebody else explain things. Why can't life ever just be easy? I'll keep you posted on what we end up doing.

Awesome skit with such a powerful message!! Had to share this today!

I think all of us are guilty of doing what she does here. I know I am. We go through the motions of being a good Christian, but are we really being followers of Jesus? Are we really doing what Jesus would do? I say this prayer every single Sunday during Mass. At times I feel like its just another response that we've learned to say together at Mass. I thought the Lord's Prayer to my children when they were very young and we used to say it every night before bed along with a Hail Mary and a Glory Be. Why did I stop doing this? Why did I let life get in the way of those few precious minutes when I spent time showing my children that praying was important. Much more important that whatever is on TV, or on my Kindle, or the dishes, laundry, etc. I am making a vow here and now to change. To work on not only saying the Lord's Prayer with my family, but truly meaning it! Who's with me?

Sometimes the grass isn't always greener...

Okay, so school started some time ago, but this year has had its ups and downs. My darling 15 year old decided that this year was the year that she wanted to brave the public school system again. At first I was shocked because this is the child that HATED public school with a passion. She has terrified her little brothers with stories of her trauma in kindergarten and first grade for years. Suddenly she wanted to try it again. We had lots of family discussions, prayers and research, and we ultimately decided that it is her life and she should have a say. All of this was complicated by the fact that I had already purchased all of her VERY expensive curriculum for homeschool. So, we enrolled her in our local high school. It doesn't hurt that we just so happen to live in the best school district in the area. Awesome school which is new and geared toward all things artistic. My sweet girl thought she'd found her happy place. We spent several weeks buying an extensive new school wardrobe, new highly expensive backpack, a phone and phone plan, and lots of miscellaneous school supplies. She even practiced wearing makeup with her cousin, because she really isn't into makeup, but most 9th graders are. We went to orientation, met her teachers, toured the school and she was so incredibly excited. She couldn't wait until her first day! Here she is heading off to school that first morning with high hopes for this new venture in her life.

I dropped her off and cried the whole way home. The hours ticked by that day. It was so quiet at our house without her here! I sat in the school pick up line for almost an hour to make sure she didn't have to wait long to be picked up. As soon as I saw her face I knew something was wrong. Her first words to me were "get me out of here". She said she just didn't fit in and hated it. I did my best to calm her down and find out the root of the problem. Having been homeschooled for the past 7 years, I fully expected that this wasn't going to be easy. I reminded her that this was something she really wanted to do. She begged me not to make her go back. Being the mean mom that I am, I told her she had to go back. You can't make a major decision in just one day. So...she went back the next day. She wasn't in tears that day, but she didn't like it any better. We went to the football game that Friday and cheered for her team. They won! I thought maybe things would get better. They didn't. She suffered through two weeks of school before I finally gave in to her pleading. I removed her from school with a somewhat heavy heart. Not sure if I was making the right decision. Again, we didn't make this decision lightly. We prayed and prayed for guidance. Thankfully I hadn't returned her curriculum so we were able to just jump right in. She has been much better since we let her come back home. She is now satisfied that this is the right decision for her. I'm terrified and feel like I'm back in kindergarten starting out our homeschool journey, but that's a whole other post.

Days Gone By...

Some days I seriously miss the days of old...you know the ones...the days that started with a cuddly kid climbing in bed with you to snuggle. Those sweet little arms wrapping around your neck and whispering "I love you mommy." These days my day generally starts with our seriously deaf dog pacing back and forth across the hardwood floor, whimpering to go outside like he has to go NOW! However, he's been let outside by my husband about an hour ago, so I know he's faking. The bad part is that I can't even yell at him BECAUSE HE CAN'T HEAR ME! If by some miracle one of my sons climbed in bed with me first thing in the morning, he'd probably have terrible morning breath and possibly stinky B.O. because he forgot to put on deodorant. Yep, the sweet smell of little kids are over at my house. I'm dealing with a teenage girl, and two pre-teen boys. Fun times indeed. I will never forget the day we were visiting a local museum a couple of year ago and walk into this enclosed tunnel area that showed glowing rocks. I'm standing there thinking that somebody had been through that really smelled BAD! Then, a few minutes later in the shark tooth digging area I smell it again. This is the lovely moment that I realize its coming from my sweet little twin boys. Yep, we had to have a lesson on hygiene and why deodorant was important right away. What fun! Gotta love boys! Of course, this is not to say that my pubescent daughter smells much better. I miss the days when life was simpler and my kids were younger. Anybody with me?

Its that time again...back to school!

This year was rather uneventful. Every year for the past 7 years, I've been keenly aware of the first day of public school. I guess it was because so many of my neighbors and friends have kids in school, and this made me feel I needed to follow along and start at the same time. We tended to take holidays when they did, and end our school year at about the same time they did. The first day of public school has always been a day where I'm laying in bed as I hear the school bus stop just outside at my next door neighbor's house to pick her kids. I cannot even begin to tell you how liberating it feels to be dozing in bed at 7:00 am when the elementary bus comes by. The middle/high school bus has already been by at this time!

Here, in our new state, new school district and new home, the first day of school passed without fanfare. We started our new school year three weeks ago. I find its much easier to buck the system when you don't have neighbors or friends locally that are in public school. Oddly enough, I didn't even notice any school buses this morning. Had I not looked up the date of the first day of school, I would have missed it entirely.

We have a very rigorous schedule planned this year, as it marks the boys first year of middle school, and Haley's last. I'm trying to foster independent learning, and trying to re-capture some of the joy of learning that we used to have before the subjects got tough. These days I feel like I live by the schedule and school work is something to just "get through" before we can get on to better things in life. I miss all the fun and adventure we used to have and I'm doing my best to re-capture some of it. Finding a balance between tough subjects like middle school math and writing, and fun stuff like science and history, gets much more difficult as my kids get older. I need to once again find my groove. On top of the stresses for this year, I can't tell you how absolutely terrified I am about Haley starting highschool next year! Yikes!! When did she get that old? Regardless, as I've always done, I will keep calm and homeschool on! How was your first day of school?

Changes...

I haven't written in a very long time. I've had so many thing going on in my life that I simply haven't taken the time. I wrote some time ago about my husband losing his job. Who knew what a whirlwind adventure it would lead us on. We tried very, very hard to stay put and find a new job there. It wasn't God's plan for my family. After many prayers and tears, we had to make the extremely tough decision to sell our home in Georgia and move to North Carolina. I am very partial to North Carolina. I lived in Charlotte for two years and was living here when Glen and I met. My brother moved just north of Charlotte about 8 years ago. My parents liked the area so well, they bought a house here to use as a vacation house. We have visited North Carolina many times over the past several years for most major holidays. I don't know if I've ever mentioned how closely my family is related or not, but my husband and I met at the wedding of his older sister to my older brother. We've been together ever since. That was 17 years ago this past June. God had a plan for us, and we simply had to take a leap of faith. My parents purchased a larger home in North Carolina in February, and we came up to help them move. The new house is almost twice the size of the previous vacation home. They live in Florida most of the year and only use the North Carolina house over the holidays for maybe three months out of the year. Someday they plan to live in North Carolina full time. On March 22nd, we packed up our house, loaded as much as we could on a huge Uhaul truck and drove to North Carolina. My parents were in town to help out on the North Carolina end, and we left our kids with them and drove back to Georgia to finish getting the house ready to list and to pack the remaining stuff. On April 7th, after a whirlwind few days, we drove away for the last time. I can't even begin to describe how hard it was to leave. I cried like a baby for the first half hour on the road. I will miss my house, for sure, but its the people I will miss the most. We have such good friends there. My church, our AHG and Trail Life troops, my homeschool group, my neighbors...I could go on, and on.

Since that day in early April, my life as changed so much. Although we live in a town where we have family close by, I have no friends, my kids have no friends, and we're just getting involved in our church and trying to find our way. Thankfully, after 14 long months, God blessed us with a new job. Glen doesn't have such a long commute anymore, and its a great company. We're looking forward to the new school year because it will allow us to meet some of the homeschoolers in our area and hopefully start to rebuild our life. In the meantime, God has been good. I'm living in a beautiful home in a great area, we've found a new church, been blessed with a new job, and hopefully, new friends will come along soon. Things are looking up.

Jamestown Fun!

Wow!  I looked at my last post and realized I hadn't posted anything in a few weeks.  So, I thought I would take a minute to share what we've been up to.  Earlier this year, I decided to do something radical and completely change our curriculum.  I have always been very eclectic and pieced together our curriculum using what I thought would be the best fit for my kids.  However, after reading (and lets face it...drooling) over a package curriculum for quite some time, I took a leap of faith and bought the first six week unit to give it a try.  Well, as it turns out, we LOVE it!  Its called Trail Guide to Learning.  So far we've completed the Columbus unit from Paths of Exploration, the Jamestown unit, and we're currently progressing very slowly through the Pilgrim unit since its now summer and daddy's home with us everyday for now.  I will put together a more in depth post about why we're enjoying this curriculum so much, but for now, I wanted to share what we've been up to.  So...without further ado, here are some super fun miniature Jamestown replicas my kids made.

This was a freebie that I received from Homeschool In the Woods.  I absolutely love their stuff!!!  I have to admit that I have so many freebies and other purchased items on my computer that its scary.  But, this one was perfect to go along with our Jamestown studies.