jen in wonderland

our morning routine.

2016-05-17T10:48:00.001-05:00

Being a homeschooling family has been so wonderful, but it also comes with built-in "traps". Right now I'm on summer hiatus from most of my regularly scheduled morning shifts, which equals more mornings at home, which equals more opportunities to be lazy.

Good morning routines have always been a struggle for me to get into place, especially over the last few years. With my work schedule, a tough pregnancy, a newborn, and now a 10 month old that has decided to pick up a newborn's nighttime sleep habits, it just hasn't been top priority. But now with things slowing down, at least on one front, I feel like it's a great time to get back into our morning groove. So last week, after we got back from vacation, I made a short list for myself and each of the big kids of things that need to be done first thing in the morning. Our lists are short and sweet, and are top priority.

Audrey's Daily 6

1. Get dressed

2. Brush teeth/hair

3. Vitamins

4. Drink water

5. Hamsters' water/food

6. Empty Dishwasher

Lawson's Daily 5

1. Get dressed

2. Brush teeth

3. Pajamas in hamper

4. Vitamins

5. Rikki's water/food

Jen's Daily 6

1. Get dressed (down to shoes)

2. Brush teeth

3. Vitamins

4. Drink water

5. Make bed

6. Start a load of laundry

Some of the items are super simple and quite the given, but if you have no where to be, and the kids know that you have no where to be, it's quite shocking how long each day everyone can stay in their pajamas! All of our basic lists can be done in 10-15 minutes, or less. So whether we are at home for the day, or not, they can be easily accomplished.

I have the kids' lists posted in their bedroom (hanging on clipboards), and mine is in my room. Audrey, of course, can read hers, and Lawson, though he isn't a reader yet, is sounding out the first letters and remembering what he needs to do. With them easily accessible, and simple in the nature of the tasks, I'm not constantly hollering after the kids to get things done. All I have to do is say, "it's time for morning routines!", and they can get to it. Of course there can be a few sidetracked moments, but I digress, they're kids after all!

In choosing the chores that are on each list, I tried to come up with both the simplest, most basic tasks, and the ones that I feel give us the most bang for our buck.

All of the animals need attention daily, so I divided that between Audrey and Lawson. The chores for the dog are a bit simpler, so I gave them to Lawson.

Audrey has been in charge of emptying the dishwasher for awhile now, but adding it to her morning routine helps us in two ways -- 1. it ensures that I'm being diligent in loading and running the dishwasher every evening, and 2. it's emptied first thing, so all of our dishes during the day, starting with breakfast, can be loaded as we go, making evening clean up easier.

Making my bed and doing laundry are on my list of priority chores (along with dishes), because those three things drive me crazy. If my laundry and dishes are under control, and my bed is made, I feel much more productive and ready to accomplish other things. If they are out of control, I feel out of control and stressed out.

Oh, and on my list where it says, "get dressed", I added "down to shoes" because being fully dressed, with shoes on, does some amazing things for my productivity level. That's yet another tip I picked up from FlyLady!

So far we're doing GREAT with our new routines, and the mornings have been running more smoothly. I'm looking forward to keeping this up, and slowly adding in more good habits over the summer for us all.

the 15 minute day.

2016-05-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

As a young newlywed (barely 20 years old!), I was completely clueless at how to maintain a house. To call my homemaking skills abysmal might be a little too harsh, but it's definitely what I felt like. Sure, I knew how to clean, but keeping any sort of routine was extremely difficult for me. I remember following my husband around in the early days of wedded bliss, cleaning up after him. As with many things in my life, I approached homemaking with an all or nothing attitude. And constantly cleaning, or straightening, could only last for so long without driving myself, or my dear husband, crazy.

I also didn't know how to cook. Sure I could make boxed mac&cheese, scrambled eggs, and Eggo waffles with the best of them, but to actually cook a real meal was a different story. An embarrassing side note: the one class that marred my straight average in high school was Home Economics, which I pulled a high C in. *cue blushing* Bryan is actually the one who first taught me how to cook. From spaghetti, to chicken fried steak, to chicken taquitos, he's the one that showed me those basics and instilled in me the confidence that had been lacking, to take recipes, run with them, and make them mine.

Anyways, back to my housekeeping skills, or lack there of. It's maddening, and exhausting, to keep going from keeping on top of things, to letting them slide, whether it's housekeeping, exercise, routines, etc. In time we also ended up adding a beautiful baby girl into the mix, along with a dog, ministry work at our church, and eventually a part time job for me. I felt like I was constantly failing at keeping all of my plates spinning. Enter FlyLady . I found this website a couple of years into our marriage. I've always been big into "mommy" blogs, and I'm sure I saw it mentioned on one of them. FlyLady is one of those things that has stuck with me for the last 10+ years. I don't always follow everything to a tee, and yes, I often still feel like I'm struggling to stay afloat in certain areas, but I learned some immensely helpful principles from FlyLady, that I always inevitably turn back to. I won't go into all of them in this post, but I'm sure this won't be the only time you hear FlyLady mentioned on this blog!

source

One of the biggest principles that has stuck with me is, "anyone can do anything for 15 minutes." FlyLady mainly uses that in reference to decluttering, but also shows how it can help in other areas of life. While I don't always specifically adhere to the exact 15 minutes, I've been able to tailor this principle to fit my needs. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, and like everything has gotten out of control (which with kids, homeschooling, and a job happens far more than I'd care to admit) I lean on this principle. There have been times where I've used a timer and done specific tasks for exactly 15 minutes, but mostly I try to look at the tasks themselves. Most individual tasks don't take a super long time to complete, so I break things up into small chunks. Instead of looking at this messy home of mine, and wondering how on earth I'm going to find the time to clean it, I focus on one job at a time. I try to prioritize where I'll get the most 'bang for my buck' (dishes, laundry, and bed making are my main three), and start there. And in doing that I'm able to alternate through small tasks in many areas -- home, school, baby, self, work, etc. Of course, nothing is ever 100% done and perfect, but that's just life! However, when I have a "15 minute day", I'm able to go over my checklist, whether physical or mental, and look at all of the things that were accomplished. And while not every single thing gets done, it's more than enough to keep me sane, and life running semi-smoothly.

Now I'm off to the next task!

hello monday!

2016-05-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

via

hello to writing again!

I've been feeling the urge to blog again. Add that to several people consistently whispering in my ear about it, and here I am! I hope to make this a more regular endeavor again. Really blogging sort of feels like cheap therapy to me, and being a working and homeschooling mama, it's nice to have a creative outlet outside of perusing Instagram and Pinterest.

hello to jumping back into life after vacation!

Last week we were fortunate enough to take a trip down to the coast with my parents and brother. It's been nearly two years since our last vacation, so it was long overdue. Five days of beach living with little to no cooking and cleaning?! Yes, please!!! It was a wonderful time filled with lovely memories, but now we're back home. I'm feeling refreshed and ready to jump back into "normal" life again.

hello to school planning!

This year has been a transitional one in our homeschooling. Honestly I started the year feeling stagnant, and kind of uninspired. Then I started listening to homeschooling podcasts. That was the jumping off point to having inspiration bubble up inside of me. So now, it's putting that all on paper. We've always pretty much been year-round schoolers, but this summer I'm ready to be even more intentional about it. So I'm currently planning out the rest of Audrey's 4th grade year, the beginning of her 5th grade year, and the beginning of Lawson's Kindergarten year!

hello to new baby adventures!

Penny turned 10 months old on Saturday! I'm dumbfounded by how fast this year has seemingly gone. As of last week she's doing more of a crawl/frog hop thing than her normal army crawling. And she's decided that she's ready to pull herself to standing. She also seems to have gotten more curious and exploratory this last week. So now there's even more of pulling her away from/off of things, picking up things that we don't want her in, and redirecting her from those things that can't easily be moved. Let the adventures of having a fully mobile and curious baby begin!

hello to more time at home!

Along with the ending of April comes the "slow" season at work. A lot of our regular meetings have ended for the summer, so that means more downtime at home for us. Work in May has slowed WAY down, and June and July look to be even slower. While this kind of sucks in the paycheck department, it also opens up time for more home-based projects to be accomplished. I'm looking forward to getting into a good routine at home with the kiddos. My kids thrive on routine! Also, since it gets SO HOT outside during Texas summers, this is the perfect time to really delve into all the nooks and crannies of schooling. Hopefully I'll also be able to get into more regular blogging, and can catch up on my reading and tv list.

AND

hello to you!

audrey, and lawson, and penelope, oh my!

2016-03-15T19:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Spring Break from beautiful central Texas!

And hello, after a year long, unintentional, blogging hiatus.

I'm currently inspired and ready to dust off the ol' blog, and start writing (typing?) down some of my thoughts again. :)

First off, a little catch up -- last July we expanded our family, and excitedly welcomed a baby girl named Penelope into our lives. My pregnancy with her was full of ups and downs, including severe morning sickness, early placenta previa, gestational diabetes, and high blood pressure. But she has been a dream of a baby. She's now 8 months old, and currently in a needy stage, but overall, she's an absolute delight. Penny has been my youngest baby to get teeth, having her first two pop up just shy of turning 8 months (her brother and sister were both over 9 months old). While she sits up and rolls all around, like her big brother, she's not in a hurry to crawl or pull up. This is perfectly fine by me, as life is crazy enough as it is without adding a super mobile baby into the mix. ;) She's also my youngest baby to sleep through the night regularly. Audrey woke up a few times a night until she turned one, and don't get me started on Lawson. We finally had to sleep train him at 18 months because he STILL wanted to nurse every 2 hours. Penny generally sleeps from 8 or 9pm (with one 5 minute dream feeding before I go to bed), and wakes up to eat again around 5am. We've all been enjoying her immensely, and I'm happy to report that, so far, there hasn't been any real sibling jealousy.

Lawson -- being the middle child, and only boy could potentially be hard for a kid, but we dote on that little boy like crazy, so no middle child syndrome yet! At 4.5 years old, he is generally one of the happiest and silliest kids that I know. Definite class clown material there. He is obsessed with Thomas the Train and Disney's Cars, and has been for a couple of years now. We probably have close to 200 cars and trains, and he still constantly wants more. Lawson is also hugely into Minecraft. He loves to play the game and watch the endless videos on YouTube that feature others playing. And given that the main guy whose videos he watches is British, he's also picked up some interesting vocabulary. His current favorite word is peckish, as in, "Can you pack an apple in my backpack in case I get peckish in the car?" Correct context and all.

Audrey -- our oldest kiddo is getting ready to hit a birthday milestone in a few weeks. In less than a month my first baby is going to be TEN YEARS OLD!!! How did that happen?! Audrey is such a sweet and kind-hearted girl. She's always thinking about others. In the past 6 months she's also really picked up a love for drawing, and she's really getting good. Her current favorite things to draw are Pokemon characters. The girl is obsessed! As always, she's doing awesome in school. She's a natural speller, most likely due in huge part to her love for reading, but she tends to enjoy doing more math related schoolwork better. As far as reading goes, she's currently reading any Babysitters Club book she can get her hands on, which makes me oh so happy! I was a giant BSC fan when I was a kid, so seeing her enjoy them too is wonderful. Last week alone she read five books, thanks to a mini spree at Half Price Books. I love watching this girl grow up, and look forward to seeing the young lady that she'll turn into.

These three kiddos bring so much light and joy to our lives!

ch, ch, ch, changes.

2015-02-20T14:02:00.001-06:00

Wow! It's been quite some time since I've put words down in this little space of mine on the web.

As a matter of fact my blog has been on completely private setting for the last 4 or 5 months due to my indecisiveness as to what I do or don't want this space to be.

Honestly, at this point the only blogging decision I've made is to NOT start a brand new blog.

So, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I guess this post will be a mini update as to what has been going on in the life of Jen in the last 9 months.

As I was thinking about life this morning and all of the many changes that have happened, and not just in this last year, but in the many years before, it hit me just how much I have to be thankful for.

Life isn't always, and definitely hasn't always been, a bed of roses, but I'm a firm believer in the fact that part of what defines us and our character and how we are in the "blessed" periods, is what we do, and how we are and act, during the thorny times.

The life that Bryan and I often talked about having leading up to marriage and during the newlywed stage is a far cry from the life that we currently have in pretty much every way, except that even with things not going as "planned" we are still so very happy.

In more recent years, our life has often lived up to the hamster wheel metaphor.

We've lived in the same 3rd floor apartment for 5+ years, we both worked super hard in jobs that we had no clue whether we would progress in, or when. We tried to add to our family with heartbreaking results, etc., etc.

But you know what? We have been HAPPY!! We were so very fortunate to learn some years back that each other, and our little family, will remain our "constant". Circumstances might change, but we're what remains. Being truly happy with what some would call a "simple" and "unexciting" life has truly been a liberating experience, at least for me. When you focus on the small blessings and happinesses (yes, I made that up), two things happen....1. bad news/circumstances seem more manageable and not quite as dire, and 2. you are THAT much more thankful when bigger blessings come along.

After continuing along like we had been, 6 months ago our "year of change" started.

Our "original" plan had been to have me stay at home and raise a whole gaggle of kids.

But due to a variety of challenges in multiple areas, that didn't happen.

I started working part-time outside of the home when Audrey was 9 months old, which eventually led me to going back to work full-time when she was 3 years old.

After Lawson was born I knew with all my heart that I wanted to be home with him, but I also needed to contribute significantly to our household income, so I eventually had 5 part-time childcare jobs that I could take him to, and that worked with Audrey's school schedule.

After a year and a half I got a promotion at my "main" job and was able to feel more secure in my work hours. A year and a half after that (this past August) I was offered an amazing promotion, that can only be explained as a gift from God. For the first time in 3 years I was able to pull back on my evening and weekend work hours, to be able to spend more time relaxing with my family. I am so incredibly thankful for this on a daily basis!!

The day before Thanksgiving is when we found out about the next BIG change in our lives, our rainbow baby.

Let me tell you now, the first trimester was HARD.

I was SO sick and exhausted, but I remember mentioning to Bryan that at the very least I was thankful for the time of year this sickness was happening in, as November/December are when my "on site" work hours slow down. So at least I had the extra downtime to be able to be miserable in my own bed. ;)

During this time I also had some issues with early placenta previa, which earned me two ER trips and 3 weeks of modified bedrest. Thankfully the previa has resolved itself and my second trimester has been fairly uneventful. It is really strange to think about a new family member being added in less than 5 months though. Lawson will be 4 years old when she is born, so what has been normal and typical for us for so long is about to change drastically!

After having past pregnancy issues though means that every kick, movement, or the sound of her heartbeat is that much more special to us!

On top of that, Bryan was given an amazing job opportunity in January that not only puts him in the field he really should have been in all along, but also is of huge benefit to our little family!

With all of these changes we will also be moving for the first time in more than 5 years in the very near future. We still haven't quite figured it out, as we want to make sure that we make the smartest and best decision for us that we can, but at the very least this pregnant mama will be getting off of the third floor!!

So, come July we will have had two great job opportunities, a pregnancy, a move, and a new baby, all in less than 11 months!

In all of this I've learned that being faithful with (and thankful for) the seemingly small, being willing to sacrifice for what makes you happy (my family!), and working hard and consistently to build the best (and happiest and most fulfilling) life that you can, is more than worth it!

It might not be what you had envisioned, and you might go into it kicking and screaming and asking, "why me?!", but sometimes, many times, it can lead to something even better than you had planned.

hello monday.

2014-05-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

hello to a new way of doing things around here!

After battling Audrey off and on for well over a year

(don't you just love when your child's will is stronger than your own?!), we have finally had success in moving Audrey and Lawson into the same bedroom.

Which means, I finally get my living room back in the evenings!

It's only been two nights, but they've been glorious.

I might actually be able to catch up on some tv and movie watching. ;)

hello to spending some time with my mama!

My parents live only an hour and a half away, but with my normally busy schedule it can be quite some time between visits, so when my mom texted me last night to tell me that she would be in town today, I was super excited!

We were able to spend an extended lunch playing at the park, plus some time just hanging out at our place this afternoon, and there just might be some pool time tonight. :)

hello to summer school!

This one might not seem like a fun and exciting thing, but trust me, it is.

I'm currently working on getting all of the stuff in order to do a super fun 'Hogwarts Correspondence School' with my little Harry Potter nerd!

It will be lots of magical fantasy mixed in with some real life learning, and I think it will be the perfect fit for our summer.

hello to lists!

Hello, my name is Jen, and I'm a closet list maker.

With the start of summer and the current slower season of my job(s), I'm thinking about all that I can accomplish in the next few months.

From home projects to recipes to summer fun to books to read and tv shows to watch to personal goals, it's all being written down.

Honestly, I feel very much right now like I feel at the beginning of a new year.

Life i full of so many possibilities!!

hello to potty training!

As some of you know, Lawson is my stubborn child.

And if you've met Audrey, that's certainly saying something.

As we've been approaching his 3rd birthday (less than two weeks! Eep!), I've been thinking more and more about getting him trained.

Now, I'm not really worried about it, I know he'll be potty trained eventually, and I also know that pushing him will lead to nothing but frustration for the both of us,

but I still find myself hoping that he'll start showing interest sooner rather than later.

Well, this week he FINALLY PEED IN THE POTTY!!!!

It was such a huge step for him, and it gives me the extra assurance that this WILL happen.

Also, the little lucky duck got himself three new trains out of it, so you know he's pleased. ;)

on homeschooling :: year in review :: history.

2014-05-15T13:25:00.002-05:00

As you've probably been able to tell with my previous homeschooling posts,

history was a favorite for both Audrey and myself this year.

After reading The Well Trained Mind, I decided almost immediately to use Susan Wise Bauer's curriculum The Story of the World for history.

This curriculum is set to go over all of history, chronologically, in a four year time period.

It's also set up in a way that you can use it multiple times.

If you start from the beginning in 1st grade and go all the way through high school, you are able to cover each time period three times.

During the 2nd grade year one should "technically" be studying the Middle Ages time period,

but since we just started this homeschooling journey at the beginning of Audrey's 2nd grade year,

I decided that it would be more beneficial to just start from the beginning, with the Ancient Times.

I figure that if we continue this homeschooling endeavor long term, she'll catch up somewhere along the way. ;)

If you're interested, the four time periods are as follows ::

There are three available books for each time period.

A "text" book, an activity book, and a test book.

You can really use some of this at your own discretion, for example, I didn't even bother with the test book this past school year, as I felt the section reviews were enough to gauge whether anything we had read stuck.

The "text" book is also available in an audio version, if that's more up your alley.

The book is separated into chapters (42) and each chapter is separated into 1-4 sections.

Using the chapters as your guide, you can separate them out and cover 1 (or maybe 2) chapter(s) a week and it'll take you the school year to complete.

A few examples of the chapter/section breakups are as follows:

Chapter Twenty: Greece Gets Civilized Again

*Greece Gets an Alphabet

*The Stories of Homer

*The First Olympic Games

Chapter Thirty-Five: Caesar the Hero

*Caesar Fights the Celts

*Caesar Crosses the Rubicon

*Caesar and Cleopatra

*The Death of Caesar

Volume One of this curriculum covers everything from Ancient Egypt, Africa, the Jewish people, Greece, India, China, Rome, and everything in between.

Audrey's two favorite cultures to learn about were Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.

The Activity Book is also separated out into chapters, with review questions for each section's reading.

And for each chapter the activity book has a plethora of extras that you can pick and choose from.

Each chapter has a corresponding "map work" page, so your child can get an idea of where in the world all of this was taking place; a coloring page; extra history reading and literature suggestions; projects ranging from easy to pretty impressive.

With all the different ideas in the activity book, I can see how this can be used for both younger and older grade levels.

This year we pretty much stuck to the reviews, map work, coloring pages (like a Greek war chariot, Alexander the Great and Bucephalus, Anansi and Turtle, and the pyramids of Egypt), and extra reading, with a couple of the activities thrown in.

The projects range from making recipes (like hummus, Indian curried rice, latkes, fried plantains, and mint tea) to making purple dye to building your own Great Wall of China out of popsicle sticks to making a volcano to making your own pictograms to mummifying a chicken, and SO, SO much more!!

We did a few of the easier, more basic projects, but I definitely have plans to delve more into those this next school year, now that I feel like I've got my feet under me. :)

One of the main things we've enjoyed about this curriculum is all of the reading suggestions!!

As you can tell from all of our literature posts, we read a LOT this school year,

and had so much fun with it.

There's nothing like your child asking you if they can read more than what they are assigned because they find it so intriguing, or going to pull out a book and being met with a sheepish, "I already read it. It just looked so good!!"
We also added a bit of writing work into history by having Audrey do a "book page" for every piece of history literature that she read.
This amounted to a drawing and 4-5 sentences about the book, a good, basic way to start introducing book reports to her.

I really, really love how literature intensive this curriculum is!

All in all, I was so very impressed with this curriculum and will most definitely continue to use it.

I absolutely credit it with the fact that if you ask Audrey what her favorite subject is, she responds enthusiastically and without hesitation, "HISTORY!"

on homeschooling :: year in review :: handwriting.

2014-05-06T12:26:00.002-05:00

This post is sure to be short and sweet, really just an overview of our curriculum.

I decided to go ahead and throw handwriting and cursive into the mix mainly because I think neat penmanship is an important thing.

I know that with computers being such a huge thing now, learning cursive isn't so much of a must,

but I'm the teacher, and what I say, goes. ;)

I chose the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum mainly because I was familiar with it, and it seems to be the most widely used.

Cursive work doesn't start until the 3rd grade level in this curriculum,

so I went ahead and ordered the Printing Power Plus set, which is for grade 2, and includes a printing book (Printing Power), and a cursive introduction book (Kick Start Cursive).

Audrey was not a fan of the printing book, but she LOVED the cursive one!
She worked through it fast and thoroughly, so we decided to jump into the grade 3 book,
Cursive Handwriting, straight away.

I've been super impressed with how fast and well Audrey has picked up cursive.
She's comfortable enough with it at this point to use it in most of her other schoolwork,
which is good for me, because her cursive is definitely neater than her printing! ;)

This is another curriculum that we will continue during the next school year.

For more info on our school year, check out my other 'year in review' posts.
on homeschooling :: year in review.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: spelling.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: math.

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 9.

2014-05-01T15:58:00.002-05:00

April was the last FULL month of literature selections for the school year,

and FULL it was!

Most of our school literature comes from our history curriculum, the Story of the World, and seeing how we only have a few more lessons left, my May literature post will be much smaller.

As I said before, we had a BIG month for history, since we finished up several subjects during April.

We learned about ancient India, China, and Rome, along with a few lessons on the Jewish people and the beginnings of Christianity in Rome.

So please, bear with me and this LONG list. :)

Savitri: A Tale of Ancient India

I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told

Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha

The Wisdom of the Crows and Other Buddhist Tales

Sacred River

Buddha

Buddha Stories

The Monkey and the Crocodile: A Jataka Tale from India

The Beggar's Magic: A Chinese Tale

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale

The Lost Horse: A Chinese Folktale

Lord of the Cranes: A Chinese Tale

Da Wei's Treasure: A Chinese Tale

Ten Suns: A Chinese Legend

The Empty Pot

Confucius: The Golden Rule

Asterix the Legionary

Cleopatra

Tales from Shakespeare

We read the play Julius Caesar from this book.

The Very First Christmas

The Miracles of Jesus

The Parables of Jesus

The Very First Easter

Miriam's Cup: A Passover Story

The Story of Shabbat

Festival of Lights: The Story of Hanukkah

And some of Audrey's "fun" reading...

The Magician's Nephew

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Whew!

That is a LOT of reading, but as I've said before, that's one of the things that I absolutely adore about this particular curriculum.

on homeschooling :: year in review :: math.

2014-04-29T15:09:00.002-05:00

One of the subjects that I've been the most impressed with, when it comes to Audrey's performance, is math.

Even though she is a words girl like myself, she has really shown that if she puts her mind to something she will succeed.

A little over a year ago I read through the book The Well Trained Mind; I've said it once and I'll say it again, this book is basically the Bible for at-home classical education.

The authors are extremely thorough in explaining what classical education is and how to implement this style of learning at home.

One of the things that I found awesome about this book is the lists of curriculum recommendations.

Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer have been at this homeschooling thing for a very LONG time,

and have kept themselves up to date on different curricula for different subjects.

For each curriculum recommended there is a brief synopsis of the actual curriculum and what kind of teacher/student said curriculum would be best suited for.

When it came to math, the top two recommendations were Saxon and Singapore.

After looking at both of them, it was quite obvious that they were both excellent, but Singapore definitely fit our small budget MUCH better.

With that knowledge I went onto the Singapore website to try and figure out which book would be best to start with.

Fortunately, on the website, you can view sample pages of the different books and even take a placement test, to see what book your student is on par with.

After judging what I knew Audrey to be capable of and looking over the sample pages, etc., I decided to start her out with Primary Mathematics 2A (U.S. Edition).

According to the website this book is on level with either the second part of an average 2nd grade year, or the first part of an advanced 2nd grade year.

We started working on this book pretty much as soon as her 1st grade school year ended,

and had it finished by the time summer was over.

Here is a sample page from workbook 2A::

After seeing her go through the first workbook pretty easily,

and gaining my confidence as her teacher,

I decided to only purchase the workbooks in her 2nd grade year, forgoing the textbooks.

This worked out really well for us, although I've already made the decision to do both textbooks and workbooks for 3rd grade, simply because the work gets harder, and I want to make sure that I'm explaining it the way Singapore has it set up.

Moving on from here I knew that I wanted to add in more math practice and review.

I definitely believe that during these foundational years, the basics of math (and grammar) need to be known inside and out.

If a child doesn't have a good basic foundation in these subjects, subsequent schooling (think middle and high school) will be more challenging than necessary, and the lack of confidence and know-how, when faced with math as an adult, will be overwhelming and anxiety inducing.

And given that this book started covering borrowing and carrying numbers, and multiplication and division, this was definitely the school year to start making sure those facts and tables were good and ingrained.

After work book 2A we moved onto Intensive Practice 2A.

Some sample pages ::

After this we went directly into Primary Math 2B (U.S. Edition).

Some samples from 2B ::

This book had sections dealing with fractions, graphs, and geometry, ALL of which Audrey is a huge fan of.

There have been times while studying any one of these topics that she begs to continue on, even if she's already completed the day's work.

Uh, yeah, I won't say no to that!

From here I found a book that was simply a total level 2 Primary Math review,

so I decided to go for this instead of Intensive Practice 2B.

And, of course, some sample pages ::

Since this "technically" completed the school year, and it wasn't even February yet, I decided to, wait for it....add in even more review!!

Exciting, right?! ;)

I bought both Singapore Math Practice 2A and 2B at the same time,

and even though it's technically not part of the Primary Mathematics curriculum,

it followed pretty closely to the things that were taught in Primary 2A and 2B.

Unfortunately, these didn't have any sample pages attached, so none for me to post here.

Some of the topics covered in this year of study have been, adding and subtracting numbers 1-1,000; multiplying and dividing by 2, 3, 4, 5, 10; graphs; fractions; money; time; length; weight; capacity; geometry; and mental calculations.

So that is 6 math workbooks completed in about 10 months.
This was done almost completely at Audrey's pace, and the most frustrating thing that we encountered was Audrey's need/want to get everything right the first time around.
We had a LOT of conversations about how school is for learning and you aren't supposed to know everything before you've actually learned it.
Oh, my little perfectionist. ;)

Audrey has also gotten into the habit of copying down her multiplication and division tables on most days, just to keep them fresh in her mind.

Singapore also offers more practice and review books like Challenging Word Problems and Math Sprints (which is basically a mental math book) that I may look into at some point.

For now I've been extremely happy with the results we've gotten from this curriculum and look forward to continuing on for the next school year. :)

*Sample pages are taken from the Singapore website, and unfortunately don't cover all of the different topics and difficulty levels in the books.

Here are the links for the previous posts in this series...
on homeschooling :: year in review.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: spelling.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: handwriting.

on homeschooling :: year in review :: spelling.

2014-04-22T15:33:00.000-05:00

Bryan and I first started to seriously contemplate homeschooling Audrey a little over a year ago.

We had talked about it here and there throughout her toddler and preschool years,

but the desire to actually do it had never gone past the talking stages.

Throughout her kindergarten year and the first part of her 1st grade year it became increasingly apparent to us that something had to give.

I have a hard time saying that Audrey is (or was) "gifted" or "talented", but it was obvious that she had at least had a HUGE head start, educationally, in preschool.

Neither one of us had the desire to take her out of school in the middle of the year,

as we didn't want to bounce her between home and public school,

so we started looking into "afterschooling".

Basically this came down to me getting some workbooks, that she could do at home, that were more along the lines of what she needed to be able to continue to advance educationally.

We only did this in a few basic subjects, one being spelling.

Ever since she was little Audrey has loved to read.

I remember reading Goodnight Moon and Dr. Seuss's ABC book to her over and over and over again when she was a toddler.

At 3 1/2 years old she started going to the Montessori preschool that I taught at, and there she learned how to read.

I was SO impressed with the way she was taught and how quickly she picked up this skill.

That being said, by the time she got to Kinder, she was way beyond the normal sight words that they sent home (it, is, at, etc.).

And I'm thinking because she spent so much time with her nose in books, she pretty much completely skipped phonetic spelling.

Every once in awhile she would spell something the way it sounded, but most of the time she was dead on with the correct spelling, even in harder words.

Because of this, I knew that one of the things we needed to do at home was work on advancing her reading and writing skills.

Thankfully, because she naturally loves to read and write so much, there was never an issue in getting her to do the work.

So, I did a little research and found a curriculum that looked somewhat promising and after looking at some sample pages online, decided to order the 2nd grade level book, as it seemed to be a good starting point for her.

The curriculum that we've been using for the last year is Spelling Workout.

We started out on Level B, which she quickly worked through.

Basically the curriculum is separated into 36 lessons, with a review being placed every sixth lesson.

And each lesson has a specific spelling "rule" that the list words abide by, such as -- different vowel sounds, prefixes, suffixes, consonant blends, vowel digraphs, compound words, contractions, etc.

Level B started out with 15 list words in every lesson.

To figure out how well she knew the list words ahead of time, we'd start by giving her a quick written quiz.

Then each lesson has three workpages which include various activities.

We'd end each lesson with a final "test" of the list words.

My original goal was just to do 1 or 2 lessons a week,

but we honestly moved much faster than that, solely because Audrey could and wanted to.

By June of last year, as she was finishing up her 1st grade school year, we were moving on to the next level, C, which is 3rd grade work.

While doing this I was also sure to start increasing the difficulty level of some of the books she was reading, considering that during her last reading test of the school year she was placed at an advanced 4th grade/early 5th grade reading level.

She would pick some books from the library, picture books and easier chapter books, and I would pick out a few chapter books that I felt were more on par with her actual reading level.

In October of last year, two months after the "official" start of her 2nd grade year, and our first year homeschooling, we moved on to Level D, 4th grade.

Since then, I've done my best to slow down her completion of the material.

We've added in dictionary work, sentence work, and still do the pre-quiz and final test.

Her word lists are now comprised of 20 words and the most that she has ever gotten wrong on a pre-quiz is 4.

And by the time, the final test comes around that total is dropped to 1, or in most cases, 0.

Her list words in this last book have included --barrel, straight, independent, cheerfully, alphabet, knuckle, remembered, surprising, beginning, petrified, measure, perceives, restaurant, disappoint, communities, handkerchiefs, immovable, disinterested, , and cautious, among many others.

One of the ways that I've also helped her increase her reading skills is by adding in mini book reports.

I felt that along with her being able to read the words, she also needed to understand them.

By having her draw a little picture and write a small paragraph, I'm helping to ensure that she's also actually comprehending what she's reading.

She's expected to do this for every chapter book she reads and every curriculum based piece of literature she reads.

It takes her less than 15 minutes, but I've already seen the benefits from this exercise.

As an added bonus, she now comes to me when she has a question about the way something is happening in a book, or if she needs help in understanding how a specific word is being used.

As far as what the future holds for this subject, I am pretty happy with the results Spelling Workout have given us, so I will probably continue on with this curriculum for the next school year.

Before we move on though, we'll most likely go through a review period where we go over the different spelling "rules" that she has learned, just to make sure it's good and ingrained in her head. :)

If you're at all curious to read other posts in this series, just click on the following links.

on homeschooling :: year in review.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: math.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: handwriting.

Thanks for reading!!

on homeschooling :: year in review.

2014-04-21T14:44:00.000-05:00

Everyday I'm in awe that the school year is fast approaching its end.
My goal is to do a little series outlining what we did during the school year, my thoughts on the homeschooling process, and some goals for the future.

This post will be mainly my thoughts on homeschooling in general, so I'm sorry in advance if I get a bit babbly (yep, I made up that word) and incoherent.
I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that taking the leap into being a homeschooling family has been the best decision that we've made this year.
It was a huge leap of faith,
but one that I knew we needed to take.

My goal in homeschooling has never been to get Audrey crazy advanced in all her studies,
but to provide her with the very best education that I could,
working at a pace that she and I set.
At this point in time she is on grade level in some subjects and has pulled ahead in others.
We are so incredibly fortunate to have the ability to tailor her education specifically to her needs.
It has definitely taken some bouncing around and dabbling in this routine or that, to figure out how her schooling works with my work schedule, but it's all been well worth the extra time and effort.

Being a homeschool mom, I totally understand where others' skepticism of homeschooling as a whole comes from.
Especially in states like mine where homeschooling laws barely exist.
Although with this new wave of homeschoolers that has been coming out of the woodwork over the past few years, I'm hoping those doubts will be all but shattered.
Traditionally people have viewed homeschoolers to be in one of two camps.
Either you're an ultra-conservative who just wants to tuck your child away and never let them experience anything the world has to offer, or you're a liberal hippie who staunchly follows the "unschooling" principle and only teaches your child a few life skills and exactly what they want to be taught at any given moment.
From what I've seen, this is not a majority of homeschoolers.
Most people who homeschool just want to give their children the best that they can.
My children's educations are extremely important to me and I just honestly felt that Audrey wasn't getting what she specifically needed from the public school system.

And being that I am currently in the position, workwise, to be able to take on the challenge of homeschooling, I had to at least give it a shot.

I do wish the state of Texas had stricter laws though.
While it's super easy to begin the homeschooling process (which is a plus!),
there is also absolutely no process to make sure that parents are kept accountable for providing
their children with a good education.
No tests need to be taken and no transcripts have to be filed,
and personally, that saddens me.
While it would be more of a headache and slightly inconvenient to do those things,
I would gladly do it if it helped to ensure that other homeschooled kids were getting a good education.

One of the pleasant perks of homeschooling is the relationship that I've been building with Audrey.
Instead of sending her off to school for most of her waking hours during the week,
I'm spending those hours with her underfoot.
And while that can be trying at times (okay a LOT of the time), it's teaching me so much about her and the person she's turning into and it's also teaching me about myself, sometimes in a not so flattering way.
I definitely think that homeschooling is a character builder in both child and parent.

After getting a year of basics under our belt, I am so looking forward to expanding our homeschooling horizons even more next school year.
We have a few more things to cross off our list before Audrey's 2nd grade year is complete,
and then we'll be moving on to some fun stuff that I have in mind for summer school.
I'm also looking forward to adding in more preschool based stuff for a mini "Tot School" for Lawson.

As I mentioned above, we will be continuing our schooling through the summer.
One of the great things about homeschooling is being able to go year round.
I remember doing this for a couple of years in public school in elementary.
We had longer or extra vacations during the school year and went to school for a good part of the summer.
I think that this is ideal considering an 8-12 week break from learning is just too long in my book.
How many kids are stuck relearning stuff from the past school year instead of advancing when the new school year begins?
So we're able to be even more flexible in our schedule during the actual school year,
because it will all be made up for during the summer.
Audrey will continue on in some of her normal curriculum during our summer session,
but I'm also planning a really fun addition to our schooling,
specifically to make summer school feel less like actual school and more like FUN!!

At this point I've been asked multiple times what our plan for the future is.
What are we going to do with Lawson?
How long do we plan on homeschooling Audrey?
What about middle school? High school?
And my honest answer is I'm not quite sure.
I see pros and cons in continuing to homeschool throughout Audrey's childhood years.
I see pros and cons to homeschooling Lawson, or any other kids we may have.
At this point I'm taking it a year at a time, and I'm making sure to do my absolute best in both the education and socialization of my kids, so no matter what the decision is for the next year,
they'll be as ready as they can be.

All in all, this has been such a wonderful experience and I really do feel that we've grown this year as a family that wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't taken the homeschooling journey. :)

To read more in this series click on the following links.

on homeschooling :: year in review :: spelling.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: math.
on homeschooling :: year in review :: handwriting.

hello monday.

2014-04-14T14:02:00.002-05:00

source

hello to a stormy and lazy morning!

We've had a storm front move through the area this morning,

which means colder temps, and lots of wind, rain, and rumbling thunder.

The weather has made me super thankful for a morning at home with my two little loves.

We slept in a bit and watched some cartoons,

and then I made them a perfect lazy morning breakfast of pancakes!!

I truly cherish my Monday mornings,

since I work Sundays, Monday has become the second day of my weekend.

The only thing missing is the hubs. <3

hello to routines that make me happy!

I never would have thought that having a cleaning routine in place would bring me so much joy and pleasure, but it really has!!

Mondays and Fridays are my "major" cleaning days.

Throughout the week I have peace of mind knowing that twice a week the floors get vacuumed and mopped, the toilets get cleaned, the laundry gets done, the trash gets emptied, the furniture gets dusted, and more.

My kids are coming to know what to expect on these days and are even having fun pitching in and helping with the chores.

I'm also realizing that whether it be a quick clean during the week or even when it comes to the deeper cleans, everything is now moving much faster and is accomplished in a lot less time than it used to take.

Also, having our home fully cleaned on these two specific days sets me up for both a good work week and then a great Saturday with my family!

hello to having an 8 year old!

Last Thursday our little Audrey turned eight!!

And let me tell you, this girl is something else.

She has such a sweet heart and wants to be friends with everyone.

She also has SO MUCH spunk and sass (Lord help me when she's a teenager!).

She is such an awesome combination of girly girl and I guess what you call a tomboy.

She loves video games, and superheroes, and to run around and play tag until she's a sweaty mess,

but she'll do it all while wearing a pretty dress and sparkly sandals.

She loves to read and write and draw and craft.

I love the little girl that she's turned into and I can't wait to see what this next year holds for her!!

hello to the school year winding down!
Public schools here don't get out until the first part of June,
but here at home we're headed into the last leg of the school year in some of our curricula.
Audrey has had a phenomenal first year homeschooling and barring some major change of heart we will continue homeschooling for the 2014-15 school year as well.
She has exceeded my expectations in so many ways this year and I'm excited to type it all out for a future post!
Also, with the end of the school year approaching, it means that my work schedule will slow down considerably.
This time of year is very bittersweet,
slow work means slow pay,
but it also means being home more and I won't lie when I say that this slower period is what helps keep me going at sometimes breakneck paces throughout the school year.
Although it's looking like this summer should be a bit busier than last,
fingers crossed.

And as always,
hello to you!!

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 8

2014-04-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

In March we finished up learning about the ancient Americas in history and then moved on to ancient Rome.

I think one of Audrey's favorite things was reading more about the gods and goddesses that the Greeks and the Romans shared, and learning them by both their Greek and Roman names.

This was a lighter month as far as literature, partly because we used more "educational" books, instead of stories, and Spring Break was also thrown into the mix.

As far as classic literature goes, Audrey started The Magician's Nephew in March and finished it up last week.

She is super excited to continue on with The Chronicles of Narnia!

This month in history we are diving into ancient India and China, and then probably circling back to Rome again. :)

Romulus and Remus

Roman Myths

Rome Antics

Asterix the Gladiator

hello monday.

2014-03-31T12:37:00.000-05:00

source

hello to one of my favorite days of the week!

Most often the kids and I are at home during the day on Monday.

We set about doing LOTS of schoolwork at a leisurely pace,

and Mondays are one of my two major cleaning days during the week (Friday is the other).

Everything gets washed, swept, vacuumed, mopped, laundered, and dusted.

All of this really sets a good pace for the week.

hello to spring and open windows!

Temps have finally started warming around these parts.

Springtime (along with fall) is one of my favorite times of the year here in Texas.

The weather is just awesome.

Warm enough in the afternoon for shorts and flip flops, but still cool in the mornings and the evenings.

I adore being able to open our back door during the day to let sunshine and fresh air.

And driving down the highway on a warm spring afternoon with music playing loud is one of my favorite simple pleasures.

hello to really embracing the simple joys in life!

As you've probably already read (several times), my word of the year is simplify.

I've seen this word at work in several different areas of my life in the last few months.

I'm realizing more and more that I really am a simple person at heart, in the best sense of the word, of course.

It doesn't take a whole heck of a lot to make this girl happy.

And at 30 years old, I'm finally starting to really accept and thrive in this simplicity.

hello to reading more!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a reader.

One of my absolute favorite things in the world is to snuggle down on my couch with a blanket, a good book, and a cup of coffee, for some uninterrupted reading time.

Now as a mama of two littles (one being two years old), who are with me just about 24/7,

those uninterrupted times are few and far between.

It's been really easy to put some of my "veg out" pleasures (reading and television) on the back burner, either because I can't find the time, or I'm just plain ol' too tired.

But lately I've realized, yet again, how much more accomplished and how much happier I feel when I'm able to devote time to reading (and in a sense to myself), so it has come back up as a priority over the last few weeks.

And I love it!

And, of course,

hello to you!!

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 7

2014-03-04T15:30:00.001-06:00

During this last month of homeschooling we finished up our study of ancient Greece,

and moved on to the story of Alexander the Great.

From there we dove briefly into the ancient Americas,

and starting this week we'll be looking at ancient Rome.

Audrey really enjoyed all of the myths involved in ancient Greek culture,

and was specifically intrigued by all of the gods and goddesses.

I love that she's loving history so much and am so thankful for finding this wonderful curriculum.

She also read The Borrowers to go alongside her writing curriculum.

Such a fun, classic book!

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus

The Borrowers

Cupid and Psyche

Children's Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Monsters

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

The Mighty 12: Superheroes of Greek Myth

Bright Eyed Athena: Stories from Ancient Greece

The Aesop for Children

Greek Myths

Alexander the Great

Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon

Is My Friend at Home?: Pueblo Fireside Tales

Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back

The Two Mountains: An Aztec Legend

I really believe that a rich education begins with reading.

Whether it be fiction or non-fiction, a literature based education gives you so much knowledge and creativity,

and I love to see Audrey grow from month to month.

She's even started writing and illustrating her own little books!!

Some are works of fiction that she comes up with spontaneously on her own,

and some she comes up with based on literature she's been assigned in school.

It's so much fun to see her so excited to be putting together her own books!

hello monday.

2014-02-17T10:28:00.004-06:00

via

Hello to one of my favorite days of the week.

Yes, really. After a pretty full workday on Sunday,

Monday is my day to get things back in order.

Our home always seems to need a good once over,

and we get a nice, full day of school in.

There always seems to be a good vibe going around here on Mondays.

Hello to a little post-Valentine get together with a friend.

Due to Lawson having a bout of sickness earlier last week,

we had to postpone until today,

but seeing how Audrey's little friendship tank gets filled up

when she gets to spend time with her little friend, Bella (who is also homeschooled),

it's totally worth celebrating a few days laste.

Hello to seeing a super cheeseball movie.

A friend and I are going to see Vampire Academy tonight.

And while the movie looks AWFUL,

I loved the books and will see any movie adaptation of a YA book.

Hello to some spring-like weather.

After having multiple "ice" days over the last few weeks,

we are currently experiencing highs in the 70s.

There's something about the beginning of spring weather

that just energizes me.

I want to clean, start some new routines, get outside, etc.

And I've had my back door open all morning.

It's divine!

Hello to some more simple changes taking place in my day to day life.

After deciding that my theme for the year is 'SIMPLIFY',

I've been making little changes here and there to make my life run more smoothly.

It's really amazing how some really simple things can make a world of difference.

And, of course, hello to you!!

on homeschooling :: 6 months.

2014-02-12T16:32:00.002-06:00

Well, we've done it!

We hit our 6 month anniversary of homeschooling on February 6th.

In some ways it feels like this last half year has flown by, but then it also feels like we've been on this little journey for a long, long time.

But such is the way of life, right?

Bear with me through this post.

I might be a bit long winded. ;)

Even though we've had a few minor hiccups in the last 6 months,

I would definitely label homeschooling as a positive experience for us.

And honestly, most of our rough spots come from my being to hard on myself and having certain expectations of myself as teacher that are a little too high to reach.

But that being said, I feel that these high expectations have kept us on the straight and narrow as far as getting schoolwork done goes.

It's all about balance, and I work every single day on finding it.

Audrey is doing awesome in her studies!

In watching her learn, I am constantly amazed at how much kids are like sponges.

Place something in front of them and they will soak it in.

Yes, some days she's more like a slow-soaking sponge, but the amount of information that she retains on a whole is amazing to me.

Don't underestimate the brain of a child!

We're still pretty much using the exact same curricula that we started the year of with,

and on the whole I'm really happy with it.

In math I have added in an extra practice workbook, mainly because she actually really likes math and tends to fly through her assignments, and before we move on to the next level (in a few months), I want to make sure that she has her basic math facts down.

That knowledge isn't something you can fudge your way through.

One of the areas that she really excels in is spelling,

which is really no surprise as anything related to words has been her strong point since she started to read.

She's about halfway through her second spelling level (4th grade!) of the school year,

and, again, I'm thinking of doing some Spelling/Phonics review work of previous grade levels before we move on.

Plus I'll be throwing some more great classic literature at her.

I definitely credit her vocabulary and word recognition to reading, reading, reading.

As far as our difficulties in homeschooling go,

the main ones that I can point to are schedule/routine, both Audrey's and my perfectionist mentality,

and sibling rivalry.

Our schedule/routine while though somewhat consistent on a weekly basis, is very different day to day.

I have found that my earlier "fix" to our routine problem ended up with problems of its own.

We are just not evening and weekend schoolers.

There are just too many distractions, and try as I did to make it work, for us it doesn't.

We've gone back to the weekday/daytime way of doing things and are happier for it.

I've just got to remember to keep the balance and not let myself get overwhelmed with everything I have on my plate.

It's a work in progress. ;)

I've realized that in several big ways, Audrey and I are very similar.

We're both people pleasers and failure of any sort frightens us.

Thus far Audrey has had a pretty easy run in current grade level school work.

She had an excellent head start with all that she learned in her two years of preschool.

So we're just now really starting to get into work that is a little more challenging for her.

And she gets easily overwhelmed if she doesn't get something right on the first try.

An example would be -- getting a word or two (out of twenty) wrong on a quiz.

Or skipping a step on a math problem and having to redo it.

This crushes her, and I distinctly remember feeling the same way.

I cried the first time that I didn't make straight As.

So I'm trying to teach her that this is what school is all about.

Learning things that you don't know.

Hopefully she'll accept this by the time she hits middle school.

Where my perfectionist mentality comes in, is in thinking about how much MORE I could be doing as her teacher.

Even though I feel like I'm doing a good job, I tend to focus more on what I'm not doing.

This definitely does nothing good for my day to day stress levels, so it's a habit I'm trying to give up.

As far as sibling rivalry goes, my kids, like most siblings, have a love/hate relationship.

Loving on each other and laughing one minute; screaming at the top of their lungs the next.

Also, homeschooling with a two year old that wants "mommy time" is challenging.

I'm slowly introducing the concept of "tot-school" to Lawson and myself.

Nothing too awful crazy, but with his natural inclination toward learning,

I feel it's time to add in some preschool type stuff with him.

And seeing what Montessori did for Audrey (and other kids that I worked with),

that's the avenue that I'm thinking of taking with Lawson.

The other day I tried switching off between the two of them.

School with Audrey, puzzles with Lawson, school with Audrey, bead threading and sorting with Lawson, etc.

It worked really well, and I feel that the peace was easier kept, and everyone's "mommy tanks" were kept full.

So, over the next few months we'll keep on trucking through, finishing up the curriculum that I set out to do this school year and figuring out, day by day, how to streamline and simplify our school routine.

I'm also really looking forward to summer.

The more I think about education, the more I realize that I'm a huge fan of year-round schooling.

Taking shorter breaks throughout the year is much more conducive to learning than taking a huge chunk of time off during a specific part if the year, IMO.

But in keeping with notion of fun and freedom that summer brings,

I have found and am starting to work on a super cool summer unit that I really think Audrey will love!

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 6

2014-02-04T15:19:00.000-06:00

Whoa baby!

In two days we will celebrate our 6 month anniversary of being homeschoolers!

And I'm thinking about a post specifically highlighting these last 6 months.

But, for now, here is our literature list from January.

Odysseus and the Cyclops

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

Ali and the Magic Stew

King Midas: The Golden Touch

The Persian Cinderella

Mr. Semolina-Semolinus: A Greek Folktale

Esther's Story

King Midas and the Golden Touch

This past month we've been going through Ancient Greece and Persia in history.

It's definitely been my favorite month so far and I'm pretty sure that Audrey concurs with me.

Over the next few weeks we'll finish up in Ancient Greece by studying the Greek Gods (!!!!).

And then we'll be moving on to a study of Alexander the Great.

As you can see from this post, Audrey hasn't read the third Harry Potter book yet,

mainly because I'm trying to hold her off a bit, since the content gets quite a bit scarier.

She has shown some interest in The Chronicles of Narnia, so I think she might head in that direction for awhile. :)

lawson-isms

2014-01-28T14:52:00.000-06:00

Currently Lawson is obsessed with smells,

mainly those he deems as bad.

A few months back I was cooking Brussels sprouts (yum!) and he came running out of the bedroom with his hands over his nose and mouth, proclaiming quite loudly that, "I don't like it!".

Needless to say, he wouldn't even taste one of those little cabbages.

Yesterday he had the same type of reaction to Bryan grilling chicken breasts on the stove.

And then, on the way to work last night, I stopped by Burger King to pick the kids up some nuggets and fries.

Initially he was super excited, as "chi-tin nuddets and fench fies" are one of his favorite meal combos,

but as soon as the bag of food came in through the window, wouldn't you know that his little hands popped up over his nose, and cries of, "It smells! I don't like! I don't like chi-tin nuddets and fench fies!", filled the car.

Weirdo. ;)

simplify :: 2014

2014-01-28T14:28:00.001-06:00

Note :: I know that this post is coming almost a whole month into the new year,

but my philosophy is, better late than never. ;)

Going into 2014 I decided to take cues from myself and what I did last year.

Instead of making a list of resolutions, I decided to come up with a word of the year.

Last year's word was BRAVE.

I feel like I was able to put this into practice in 2013 in several ways.

The two biggest were my being moved into a new position at work and going through a time of personal loss/hardship during the summer.

There were also other, simpler ways that I was able to be brave, most having to do with relationships with others.

Even though I do have a few goals for the year floating around in my brain,

I really like the idea of having a word to help define my year.

In choosing my word for the year, I kept coming back to my love of the 'simple things in life',

and my desire to make my life, all around, simpler.

So this year's word is SIMPLIFY.

via

Leading up to this year I had already, rather unknowingly, taken a few steps to help make this happen.

One of the main changes we made was deciding to homeschool.

While this does create its own little bubble of chaos, I also feel like it simplified our lives a whole lot.

Last school year, between Audrey's school schedule, my crazy work schedule, having a toddler, and keeping up with our home (among other things), I felt like the kids and myself were constantly being rushed from one thing to the next.

Now I know that some people thrive on this kind of busyness, and even feel like it adds a level of importance to their life, but not this gal.

Most of my time spent with Audrey was rushing her out the door, or me rushing around to leave.

Now I feel like our time outside of my job(s) can be more relaxed.

I have more time to get things done and the quality time we spend together has grown significantly.

via

In thinking of different ways that I could simplify,

I realized that simplifying can cover SO many different areas of your life.

It can pertain to your health, both physical and mental;

your relationships, whether it be familial, friendship, or work related.

In my own humble opinion, simplifying is probably the best (and healthiest) thing you can do for yourself.

source

So, that's my goal for the year.

SIMPLIFY.

A website that I found through several different sources that continues to give me inspiration along this avenue is Becoming Minimalist.

Seriously, if this is something that you've given even an iota of thought to, check it out. :)

Do you have any specific resolutions/goals/words/mottos for the year?

I'd love to hear about them!

best reads of 2013.

2014-01-17T16:08:00.000-06:00

After mulling it over and thinking about my favorite reads from 2013,

I've composed a little 'best of' list for you.
Note that most of the books I read last year were of the Young Adult genre,
this year I'm pushing myself to branch out into Adult and Nonfiction writings more.
Also, these are in no particular order.

Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl was one of those books that I'd heard the name of many times before I actually picked up the book. I eventually checked it out of the library on the recommendation of the hubs, who raved about it. And being that he's not a huge fan of fiction writings, I decided to give a go and see what the fuss was about. Let me tell you, this book is quite twisted and most definitely falls into the thriller category. But it is a really great read. Most of the people I know that have read it, loved it. But there are a few that majorly disliked it. I'm definitely interested in reading more of Flynn's books.

Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm
by Leigh Bardugo

These two books I'll count as one.
They are both part of The Grisha trilogy. And for Shadow and Bone being Bardugo's debut novel, these are written amazingly well. As a matter fact of fact these books were two of the only three books that I gave 5 stars on Goodreads in 2013. I read each of these in very limited sittings and was totally enthralled the whole time. The pull of dark and light, and the fight between doing what's right and what feels good are major components to this story. Plus there's the (almost) always present in YA literature addition of a love triangle, where the choice between the good boy and the bad boy is ever so hard to make. Honestly, I have yet to make my choice between Mal and the Darkling as well. Another thing is that this story doesn't really have the feeling of being "done" already that many YA books have. The premise is pretty original and holds its own. I am eagerly awaiting the June release of the third installment, Ruin and Rising.

Under the Dome
by Stephen King

I came across this book while reading an article that was highlighting books that were being turned into television shows or movies. After reading the premise and having enjoyed the previous works of King's that I've read, I knew that I had to get my hands on it. Boy was I in for a surprise when I picked up my hold from the library and this 1,074 page behemoth was in it. This book starts off with a (pretty literal) bang and keeps going all the way through. It definitely gets weird, and sick, and twisted, and just down right gross at parts, but hey, it's Stephen King, what do you really expect?! What made this a top pick for me was how it kept me engaged consistently, all the way through. So much so, that I read it in about a week's time. That's saying something for a 1,000 page book.
Also, if you've watched the tv show, it is WAY different than the book. I know that this happens all the time with book to show/movie adaptations, and it's something that I really don't mind that much but seriously other than the dome and a few characters, these are SO far apart.
So, if you've seen the show and want to read the book based on that, expect something way more grotesque. ;)

Vampire Academy
by Richelle Mead

This is another series that I'll count as one, although I won't list each one of them, since there are six books altogether. I absolutely adored this series. When I first started I was very skeptical because of a few things. The cover, the title, and the fact that it was yet another vampire series. Pleasantly surprised was what I was when I just wanted to keep reading and acquiring the next in the series. I read these in about a month and that was with waiting for holds at the library and taking a week after the first book to read Under the Dome. I also wrote a review post here, that is a bit more in depth than what I'm writing now. If you love fun, action packed, romance filled, supernatural YA books with kick ass females as the protagonist, this series is probably one you'd enjoy.
Also, the movie adaptation looks to be cheese filled, but given that seeing YA books turned into movies is one of my "things" (no matter how bad), I'll be headed to theater sometime next month to check it out.

The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey

I picked this up on a whim while perusing at the library. After reading the opening to the synopsis on the book jacket, I was hooked. "After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one." I am a big fan of anything "alien", and this book is definitely up there in the ranks. The main protagonist, Cassie, is bad ass, yet vulnerable. The book is going through several stories that eventually meet up. There is raw sadness, mixed with action, and the hope of something beyond the sadness and despair of the current world woven through out the story. This is one of those books that, although I'm so happy that I read it, I feel like I read it too early in the game, since the second installment isn't expected to release until September, with the third trailing behind in August 2015. It will be getting reread twice more for sure. ;)

What are your favorite reads of 2013?

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 5

2014-01-14T13:39:00.001-06:00

As I was typing out the title for this post, the realization that we've been doing this homeschooling thing for nearly 6 months hit me.

Wow!

These last 6 months have been such a wonderfully growing and trying time.

I've learned a lot about myself and about Audrey during this time, and I'm super excited to see what the next 6 months will bring!!

The Legend of the Persian Carpet

Forty Fortunes: A Tale of Iran

Theseus and the Minotaur

The Hero and the Minotaur: The Fantastic Adventures of Theseus

Atlantis: The Legend of a Lost City

The Trojan Horse

Audrey also finished this right before Christmas....

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

So we spent part of our Christmas Day watching the movie.

It's so exciting to see her so passionate about a book/series!!

And with the addition to HP:CoS to her bookworm, she clocked in at just under 79 books in less than 7 months!!!

So proud of my girl!

lawson-isms

2014-01-13T14:27:00.000-06:00

A couple of cute stories for you today....

As we were walking to the car this morning the wind was blowing super hard.
Lawson starts shrieking, "MY HAIR!! IT'S BLOWING AWAY!", to which I replied, "Then you better catch it!". So, for the remainder of the walk to the car Lawson kept his hands on his head, trying to hold onto his hair. :)

A little while later, we were in the car on the way to work, and Lawson was playing with his Captain Hook doll. As he was playing he kept calling Captain Hook "her". Of course, this prompted Audrey and I to try and explain that there are boys and there are girls. In part of my explanation, I told him that Daddy and Lawson are boys and Audrey and Mommy are girls.
If you know Lawson, then you know that he is a major mama's boy and doesn't like to be separated from me, especially if Audrey is with me instead of him.
His reply was, "NOOO!! Mommy and Lawsy!!".

Love this kid!

on homeschooling :: literature :: month 4

2013-12-10T11:23:00.000-06:00

Again, another 'better late than never' post.

As you will be able to tell by the amount of books read, November was a bit of a slower school month for us.

I think that we were both needing to scale back a little, for a time.

So I made sure that all of the basics were kept up with, but all of the extras were kept to a minimum.

With the start of December came a renewed vigor and an excitement (at least in myself) to add more in.

Anyway, on to our literature list for the month.

In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid

Roman Myths

The Story of Jonah

The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor

Audrey also read through her first Harry Potter book in November!!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This was her first "big" novel, and it was so exciting to see her so interested in it.

After she read through the book we had a movie night and made butterbeer to drink while we watched the first film.

I loved hearing her ask all kinds of questions about the differences she noticed between the book and film adaptations.

She also made notice of the issue that any reader of books turned into movies has....

reconciling the characters in her head to the ones on the screen.

I guess several of the faces from the movies didn't fit what she had imagined while reading the book. ;)

peace, love, and all things sparkly.