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Monday, January 26, 2009

Art that makes me smile

Camille's Jesus just makes me smile. I have no words, I just exude joy looking at it.
Camille, age 8, January 2009
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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Thursday

Camille and I had a girls' day. After picking up Danny from PreK, the kids and I rode our bikes to a neighborhood park where I introduced them to swing "frogger". Their laughter is so healing and beautiful. I am blessed.

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Friday, January 16, 2009

I'm scared

I am and have been procrastinating on applying to college. I'm terrified. While I know working has added a responsibility to my life, I'm afraid of the ramifications of my own formal studies with real deadlines. I've lived my life for the last 5 or so years being very self-led as a stay-at-home mom. I've had projects and my own personal deadlines but I haven't had external factors with real consequences in a while.

I have little personal time right now and I feel I'm about to lose it, that it will be replaced with studying and writing papers for college. It might not be but I'm very protected of the little down time I have. In the end, it doesn't matter because I have to go to college, it is not an option. College is my only chance of a better life, a door to more opportunities than I currently have and I have to go through that door. Right now, I'm knocking on that door so lightly, it's almost inaudible so it's time to knock louder. I will finish my application TODAY, I will do everything but the CPT TODAY. I will call the library to set up a time next week to take the CPT with a proctor. No one else will do this for me, it's up to me to knock louder and walk through the door.

UPDATE: I have finished the application, financial aid information and everything but the college placement test, whew. I'm going to the library today to set up my test for next week. Now I'm praying that Federal Student Aid will take care of all the costs. I have a headache now, lol.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

4th Grade Reading

Here's our reading list for 4th:

Independents

The Mouse and The Motorcycle by B. Cleary
Sarah, Plain and Tall by MacLachlan
The Year of the Panda by Schlein
The Hundred Dresses by Estes
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Pinocchio
Flat Stanley
Homer Price
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil D...

Read Alouds
Narnia (unsure how this will be received so we'll do 1 and see how it goes)
The Penderwicks
The Little Princess
The Railway Children
Tom Sawyer
King of the Wind
Pollyanna

Most of the Independent titles have online guides, others will be from Veritas Press or Progeny Press.

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A Modified 4th Grade Plan

Camille's 4th Grade Year

Math: Math-U-See Delta/Epsilon (3x/wk) and Math on the Level (1-2x/wk)
Latin: Latina Christiana I with DVDs
Language Arts: after finishing Writing Tales 1, Intermediate Language Lessons by Margot Davidson
Spelling: Simply Spelling by Laurie Hicks
Science: God's Design for the Physical World set
Geography: Discovering the World of Georgraphy (4 workbooks), Leap Frog Smart Explorer Globe and other games

Independent Reading
with Study Guides from Progeny, Veritas or online.
The Mouse and The Motorcycle by B. Cleary
Sarah, Plain and Tall by MacLachlan
The Year of the Panda by Schlein
The Hundred Dresses by Estes
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Pinocchio
Flat Stanley
Homer Price
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Read Alouds (One per month)
Narnia (unsure how this will be received so we'll do 1 and see how it goes)
The Penderwicks
The Little Princess
The Railway Children
Tom Sawyer
King of the Wind
Pollyanna




I will not be using TOG Redesigned Year 4 next year, partly because of the subject matter but also because of the cost and hassle of getting the books either buying or from the library. I need a more manageable overall syllabus that is more open and go and to streamline as much as possible. Poetry memorization will be done through Intermediate Language Lessons instead of The Harp and Laurel Wreath just for efficiency.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Adjusting

I'm still adjusting to a major lifestyle change and this blog is the last thing on my mind. I feel sorry for not posting but in the overall picture of my life, this blog has very little priority. Last week was our Week 13 and I didn't do a report because it was a very light week. There wasn't many pictures to take.

The reality is that we have not done a nature walk since Thanksgiving. It seems whenever I have a day off from work, the weather is threatening rain or I have errands to do...or I'm so tired I need to rest. I just finished reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and now I have 'gazelle intensity' to go through the steps. If you're familiar with the book, I will have Baby Step One completed by the end of this month, and the forecast is that by next Christmas, Baby Step Two will be accomplished. When I say that, I mean personally, not household wise. I'm so glad to find out that Camille's dad (my ex) is also going through his own TMM and is further along in the steps than I am. I'm thrilled for both of us!

I'm also reading Parenting With Love and Logic, but it's hard to read two fabulous, life-changing nonfiction books at once so I put it down to finish TMM. I just finisheed TMM last night so I will pick it back up again. I haven't read any fiction since reading the Twlight series back to back in a weekend but I sense a need for a little fun reading coming up.

On the homeschooling front...
We are on Week 14, we started Writing Tales 1 this week, The History of Medicine by John Hudson Tiner in science and we have dropped piano lessons. Dropping piano was a hard decision. Camille enjoys playing but she's not enjoying the lessons and not showing enough dedication to continue paying for lessons. She wants to participate in a sport but the reality is, both her dad and I work nights. This may be an area of sacrifice for a little while.

Lately, I've been questioning how effective I can truly be as a teacher while working and going to school myself. My mind and heart is now open to the possibility that public school may be the better option for the short term but I'm not quite ready to give up yet. Danny has been tested and I'm calling the special education department to learn more about his test results today, they noted he has some delays and I want to find out exactly what they have concluded those are. I have a strong feeling he will benefit from doing kindergarten at public school instead of at home. Usually at this time of year, I'm clamoring to purchase next year's curricula but this year I want to wait.

I will do a weekly report this week regarding what Camille and I are doing this week.

Let's see, is there any other news to report?
Hmm. Oh, yeah. I've lost 12 lbs! From the beginning of December, which is when I started working to now, I have lost a total of 12 lbs. I'm in the process of adding more physical activity to my life, including finding a DVD workout that I enjoy, bike riding more (including to work, possibly) and doing a lot less sitting at the computer.

The only problem with riding my bike to work is that I don't want to show up to work all sweaty and have to leave the house so early. It takes me 10 minutes of steady pedaling to get from my front door to work which is GREAT but I would have to change clothes once I was at work and put my makeup on(?) and I wonder if the logisitics are worth it. Plus, I'd be riding home at 10:30pm and even though I'm not afraid of that, I do not wish to get sick from riding in the night air.

So if I did ride my bike to work- I'd have to leave the house 30 min. before I needed to be at work (10-15 min ride, 15 min freshen up at work), I'd carry a backpack with my clothes and makeup, a jacket for the night air and leaving work to go home for dinner would not be an option, so I'd be paying for my dinner at work unless I packed a dinner. I'd have to buy accessories to outfit my bike for commuting - like a headlamp, preferably a basket or backend platform. I'd rather pack my lunch than buy it at work, at least most of the time and that means I'd have to carry it too. I don't wish to carry my lunch in the same compartment as my work clothes, know what I mean? This is the kind of mental exercise I don't need right now so I've put off doing this until the weather is a bit more stable. Not 50° one night and 70° the next.

I'm so stinking excited about my own TMM! I am working on the household budget too but I can't do too much with it, esp. since dh doesn't wish to have a budget, see a budget or even consider a budget. I'm doing what I can within the perimeters I have but I have paid off two of his medical bills and will apply the debt snowball to paying off the rest. I have two bills in my name, a medical bill and credit card. Those are what I will be working on within my own TMM. Everything else is in dh's name.

I don't think I have much else to report other than little happenings so I'll end this post here.

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