I'm finding it hard to work around my busy holiday schedule with my busy school schedule. I have however found that preplanning things makes a world of difference. I told myself that school must come first to all things but finding it hard to stick with it. Thankfully the kids are not giving me any grief and work with what ever time slot we have for schooling. One day to make things fun I schooled them both at the same time (normally I school them one on one). While I was working with one the other could listen and learn right along. It took a bit of juggling but when I look back at the laughter we share it was well worth it and I will do it again soon. Daniel hates to write so I have been trying to incorporate games into his writing so its more fun for him. I show him some of his hand writing from like kindergarden and he then gets excited to show me how much better it is now. He suprises me how quickly he picks up on things. I love the holidays but will need much rest when they are over.

Wow I guess this is WAY over due, huh? I just got the kids curriculum for the next grade. Now that Alayna knows all her letters and sounds we can go back to her Language Arts curriculum. The funny part is she is soooo excited about it. I flipped through some of the material in the new books and Daniel is really excited about the stuff we will be studying. It has been so hectic around here lately. My dad is coming over Saturday for the first time in five years. He has not seen our new house but its been five years since he has been to my house so I feel like a school girl. I have been cleaning my brains out , I even washed the walls. LOL. I know I'm over doing it my Dad don't care but I think he might bring his wife and that's what scares me. Well I'm off to do more work. We are getting Dish Network tomorrow cuz we can't afford cable any more so I have to rearrage some furniture.

I have been very busy since my last entry but things are good and I'm glad to be posting again. The Lord is doing wonderful things in my life and home. I took last week off from schooling to get things organized in my home and in my personal life. It was alot of work but well worth it. We are back to schooling this week like we didn't miss a beat. Alayna has only two letters of the alphabet left to learn and she is just as excited as I am. I am so proud of how hard she has worked to learn them and I love that she is excited to learn them as well. Daniel is being more patient in math and cursive writing. He is doing so much better in both. We are having a hard time with spelling however because the curriculum I use has ALOT of spelling words to learn. I think I may break it down so there are not as many.

        I found a great store for purchasing learning aids. Its a parent teacher store and they have a ton of stuff. I love it. If they don't have it they will order it for you. Any way it beats ordering it online if you can't find it in stores. My husband doesn't like to purchase anything online.

I woke this morning feeling very tired. Like I didn't sleep at all last night. I managed to get through schooling with Alayna ok but Daniel and I battled the whole time. I have a very tight schedule and I have a tendency to go over board on wanting to keep to it. Last year was so messed up that I wanted things to run smoothly this year. But to what degree to I go to? My son was tired I was tired and we were both not in the mood to do schooling. It finally hit me. Today is Friday tomorrow is Saturday. I slam the books closed looked at my son and said "How about we quit for today and go carve pumpkins" He looked at me for a moment and said " I will get behind" I just told him we could finish tomorrow. He was happy I was happy. Everyone is happy. I learned today that sometimes you just got to call it quits. What good is it if you over do yourself.

Went to bed late and got up early. I'm so tired. I need to make a point of going to bed earlier. My step-father was here at 9 am to pick up some wood. My son had several science experaments to do today but we had to hunt around for the list of things you needed. I like using Alpha Omega curriculum but sometimes the work is set up for class rooms instead of homeschooling. Where am I suppose to get a piece of limestone?

      It was hard but we managed to learn things from it. We are doing a study on Michigan and have made a list of places we would like to visit. I didn't realize how many interesting places we have here.

      Well early to bed early to rise makes you healthy wealthy and wise (or so I hear lol).

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I have been so busy the time has flown by. Today my kids were like little sponges.

Any way on to the news. Alayna has had a total attitude change when it comes to writing and learning her letters. She can't wait to learn a new one and asks "Whats next Mom?" I'm so thrilled. Her penmanship is improving so much. She actually enjoys doing it. I'm sure to give her lots of praise which boosts her eagerness to do it. She gets stickers and gets to hang it on the bulletin board.

This week we are doing an art project for the four seasons. They are going to draw a tree on a huge piece of paper. Then using different materials they will show what the tree looks like in the different seasons. My son is learning about rocks in science so we are going to go look for some different types. We are also going to grow some crystals.

Sometimes Daniel suprises me. He had alot of tests to take today and he did wonderfully. I have found that if I have him write his spelling words five times a day for five days he does great on his spelling tests. He seems to be enjoying language arts more this year then last. He really struggles with math though. The parts where they want him to write the math problem in words instead of numbers he really doesn't like that. I'm trying to come up with a way to make it fun for him so he will want to do it. I would take any suggestions. Alayna did good today too. She is on book number 6 in the Bob series. I'm am currently looking into a book series we can do together. I'm trying to find something they will both like. If I can't maybe Alayna and I will do Little house and Daniel and I can real Huck Finn or something.

      Well I'm off to clean my basement. We are moving the entertainment center down there. That way I can keep the living room upstairs looking better.

Today with trying to clean carpets and put furniture back and wash walls I apted to school both kids at the same time. Big mistake LOL! Daniel kept giving Alayna the answers when I would quiz her on something. He couldn't stay focused. She kept asking me why she couldn't do the work he was doing and when she was going to catch up to him. I guess that would be a good thing in motivating her but he is pretty far ahead of her. In the end it ended up being more trouble then it was worth. It took them longer to do their work then if I had done them individually.

Alayna is now recognizing,writing, and knows the sounds of more then half the alphabet. I couldn't be happier. The simple fact that she is making progress is such a joy. I worried and prayed that the Lord would guide me in teaching her. A friend of mine from CHC had suggested Bob Books and she has been doing very well. We are now on book 5 in the first set. I have already ordered the second set. I loved the look on her face the first time she read one all by herself. She was so excited she called Grammie (my mother) and read the book to her. I was so proud of her I could have squeezed her to death LOL. I am at more ease this year then I was last year. Schooling is what I focus on first thing. When that is finished I get busy on the house work. Phil is more then supportive of this. He doesn't mind the house getting put aside for a little while. I make up for it on the weekends.

This is my first time blogging and my second year of homeschooling. My daughter Alayna is going to be 8 in December. She is going to be my biggest Trial yet. When my son Daniel was little he wanted to learn everything. How to say the alphabet, how to count, write his name and so on. Alayna wasn't interested in anything, nor did she see the point. No matter how hard I tried to spark her interest she wasn't going to have any part of it. When kindergarden rolled around her teacher reasurred me that it was natural and she would pick up on it right away. Well as the school year progressed my sweet Alayna did not. They pulled her from class to give her one on one help but that didn't help too much because they only had class two and a half days a week and she had to be in class to keep up.

  They pushed her on to first grade because she needed to be in school more then two and a half days. In the mean time Daniels second grade teacher highly recommended that he be held back. Daniel was diagnosed with ADHD in the first grade. Once he was on medication and they got it regulated correctly he was starting second grade. He did outstanding in second grade but his teacher felt that if he repeated the second grade he would be able to keep up in the third grade. His reading and math needed more work and there is such a large step from second to third that she felt this would benefit him. Well the school didn't agree and pushed him forward. We moved during the summer and they started at a new school where the teachers didn't know their history. I immediately got letters home from Daniels teacher telling me how he doesn't finish his work in class. He couldn't finish it because he couldn't keep up.

     My husband Phil and I had talked about homeschooling in the past and the idea was becoming more and more appealing. In November of 2004 we pulled the kids from school and decided to homeschool them. That is how I got where I am now.