Wouldn't it be nice if every day was Mother's Day? We can't make every day Mother's Day, but we can offer savings you can enjoy the whole year through! In appreciation for all you do CurrClick.com is pleased to announce our 3rd Annual Mother's Day Freebie Event! Spend Sunday with your wonderful family and then visit us on Monday, May 12th for an event that will give you a reason to keep celebrating Mother's Day for the rest of the year: From May 12th through May 14th, download up to 21 FREE Homeschool titles from our generous publishers, worth over $97.00 in value!

Our first week of Tapestry of Grace is over and done with ... well, almost. I still have to go over my oldest son's stuff and work on geography with Taz, and catch up Taz's reading. One of the library books came in later than needed so we are behind on that one.

I think once we get all the kinks worked out of our schedule and get used to the structure of Tapestry of Grace, we are going to really enjoy it. *I* have learned a lot already! Tank should be doing his reading independently but I started reading his books and found them so interesting that I am just reading them aloud to him. He is more of an auditory learner so I think he enjoys that better, anyway.

I'm kind of kicking myself in the rear right now because I thought I would save money by just printing off Tank's assigned reading each week from the books that are available for free online. My black ink cartridges cost about $19 each and I have almost gone through one already just printing a week's worth of reading. The books cost about $20 each, so I am definitely LOSING money here, not saving. I guess we will just have to sit here and read straight from the computer screen from now on!

I really need to come up with a good schedule for our school time. I try to go from youngest to oldest and try to keep the little ones occupied with their own activities and bedroom time but things are just not working out. We have also been neglecting our family Bible reading time so we've got to get back to that. The main problem with our school time is that my older kids are loud when my younger kids are having lessons and my younger kids are loud when my older kids are working on lessons. They're all just SO LOUD! How do you train children to be quiet at home? We've pretty much got the quiet at church thing worked out and the behave at the grocery store thing worked out ... but at home it's another story! So we will have to work on that this week.

I have had this post in the works for several days now, and have had the WORST time with formatting and font color! I think I have most of the formatting corrected but just please ignore the changing font color!

You just *have* to check this out - Tiany is hosting a "homeschool open house" with some spectacular door prizes!

She says: To participate simply write a post (as elaborate or simple as you want it, pics or no pics its up to you) about any or all of the following …

• A short intro about you, how many blessings? How long have you been Homeschooling etc.. Just in case this is someone’s first visit to your blog.

OK. Well I'm Diane and I'm married to Billy. We both have lived in the Tampa Bay area for most of our lives. We have 3 sons (ages 15, 12, and 7) and 2 daughters (ages 5 & 2). We have another child on the way, due in March. We've been homeschooling since my oldest was halfway through 3rd grade.

• Your Day, what does it look like?

I'm working on it.  With my 5th pregnancy I was overwhelmed with fatigue that continued until this pregnancy started, and days were just lazy and unorganized. Now that I'm feeling better I am trying to structure our days better. Usually I get up and take my shower and get dressed before the girls are up, and then read a devotional book and pray, then check my email. All the kids are usually up by this time and we all eat breakfast and clean up, then we read the Bible. Next we read a chapter from a character training book, and do our history lesson followed by science. Right now we're not doing math or language arts so this routine will change in a couple weeks. By this time we're ready for lunch, and by the time we're done eating and cleaning up my husband wakes up and comes downstairs. (He's currently working nights, but that will change in a couple weeks so that's another change to our routine!) I try to take a nap at this time, but for the kids, its free time until dinner. Right now free time consists of TV and video games, because honestly, there's nothing else to do here! We must live at the most boring location on the planet! When we get back to full-time homeschooling, I anticipate that at least 2 hours of what is now "free time" will be then used for school.

• What curriculum will you be using? Do you not use a curriculum? Do you homeschool for FREE? Tell us all about it!

For our core curriculum we are going to start using Tapestry of Grace. This year we are going to use Year 2. I try to do as much free homeschooling as possible, using the internet and the library. When my kids are young we use LLATL for language arts and as my oldest 2 boys have gotten older, we have tried a variety of other curriculums for language arts, or just gone without a curriculum. My oldest son wouldn't write AT ALL until he started blogging, and then he really took off, so that was his language arts for a while - it covered all the basics in a natural setting and free, no less, so it worked for us! For math, we have tried a variety of programs and I've decided I like Horizons for the younger years. HATE Saxon but have only used it for middle school/high school. Would LOVE to try Teaching Textbooks for my older boys but I can't afford it right now. So, my 12yo is going to use School of Tomorrow for math this year. (I used it when I was in Christian school, so I'm already familiar with it, and I think it will work well at helping him to become more independent in his work.) And my 15yo is probably going to do geometry through the Florida Virtual School. I just wrote in a previous post what we're doing for science this year. We don't use a curriculum for Bible, we just read it. Some years I use the Calvary Chapel worksheets for the younger kids to supplement. My oldest son participates in Bible Drill at church, as well, and I count that towards his schooling. We're also going to do a study on Haiti this year, which hopefully will include some service projects like maybe a peanut butter drive or a shoe drive.

• Do you schedule your day to the minute or are you a fly by the pants kinda homeschool?

I kinda covered this question already! We've got a basic routine but it needs more structure. I've found that *I* need plenty of external structure in the form of extra-curricular activities and co-op classes, to keep *me* going. Even though I'm not planning on us doing many extra-curricular activities this year, I know I need to do *whatever* I can to keep us on track, with having a child in high school AND having a baby coming. There's no room to slack off this year!

• Do you homeschool in a homeschool room, at the kitchen table, at a desk, in the park on the grass?

We've done it all. Finding the perfect homeschool set-up seems to be like my ultimate goal in life at times! But usually we just plop down on the sofa or floor, or sit at the table. We did have some real school desks but the kids never really used them. And of course real education can not be confined to academics at a desk, so our homeschool is everywhere we are all the time.

• How long is your homeschool day?

Right now in our summer schedule we usually go from about 9 or 10 until noon, but once we're officially in full time homeschool mode it will take much longer! With such a huge age range, it is probably more difficult time-consuming than for someone who has all preschool - elementary ages, because I can only combine so many kids in so many subjects. Therefore, it is not unusual for me to be finishing up with one of the kids after dinner or even before bed! One of my children in particular especially likes having "one-on-one" time with Mom right beore bed, and I've found that is the best time for me to work with him on his math and reading.

• Do you homeschool one blessing or many?

All of my children are homeschooled and hopefully they will all homeschool right through high school! Even though my oldest 2 both went to public school for a short time, I consider my children to be "homeschooled from birth"!

• Do your children school independently or are you there directing every child in every lesson?

I prefer the family-integrated approach to homeschooling and we do as much together as a family as possible. But for their independent subjects - math and language arts, mostly - I like for them to work independently as much as possible, but there are always issues with that. One child is fully capable of working independently in every subject BUT he *really* needs the accountability he gets from me being right there. If I tell him to do an assignment independently, and expect him to do it, he won't! It's been a major source of strife for us. Another child *should* be capable of doing most of his work independently but he has major "attentiveness" issues, which results in poor comprehension. So I like to work with him at first to make sure he understands what he is doing, and then let him work independently (with me in the room in case he gets distracted or still needs help). The younger kids are all pre-readers or not *quite* fluent enough in reading yet to work independently.

• Do you have any “must share” tips?

I'm far from being an expert and I'm still learning as I go along!

• Do you have a question or concern? Throw that in there too!

Well, there is the aforementioned "accountability" issue! I started writing this long rant about it but of course this is really not the best place for that!  So I'll just leave it at that! 

Here it is almost time to start "back to school" and I have yet to buy any curriculum! If you're in the same boat then be sure to check this out: Janne is hosting a virtual homeschool curriculum exchange! All you have to do is blog about what you have to sell or exchange, and what you need or want, and leave her a comment with a link to your post. Okay, so here are my lists:

For sale or exchange

• Bob Jones Writing & Grammar Grade 9 Teacher's Book w/ CD-ROM. Copyright 2006/3rd Edition. Like new condition.
• Christian Manhood Teacher's Guide & Answer Key. Like new condition. Also have the student book but it has some pencil marks and white-out.
• Keeping a Nature Journal by Claire Walker Leslie & Charles E. Roth
• A Reason for Spelling Level A (Grade 1) Teacher Guidebook, copyright 1999. Good condition.
• Living Learning Books Level 1, Life Science (doesn't include student pages)
• How to Teach Any Child to Spell (like new) & Tricks of the Trade Spelling Notebook (very good, a few penciled in words have been erased)
• Wordly Wise 3000 Level 3 (6th Grade) Teacher's Key
• Saxon Algebra 1 Textbook, homeschool packet, and DIVE CD-ROM
• Switched on Schoolhouse - grade 3 Bible, grade 6 Bible, grade 9 history/geography, grade 9 language arts
• What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know
• What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know

There are a few other items I may list later, that I either have listed on eBay or haven't decided yet to keep or sell ... Mystery of History Volume 1 w/ CD-ROMS, several LLATL teacher's guides ...

Items I Need or Want

• Tapestry of Grace Year 2 - I really want the new edition but obviously no one has that used, yet!
• any books that go with TOG year 2 for rhetoric, dialectic, or lower grammar students. Most of these are listed on my amazon.com wish list
• a complete geometry course - I prefer Teaching Textbooks but the Bob Jones geometry teacher's book (etc) will be okay. I got the student textbook for free.
• a 7th grade math course - again I prefer Teaching Textbooks but I think the 7th grade course is new so I don't know if anyone has it used yet. - I've got the answer keys for School of Tomorrow's 7th grade math PACES, and 4 of the PACES, so the other 8 PACES are all we really need
• LLATL Red Book Student Book
• Revolution (writing curriculum I mentioned in a previous post)
• The Chortling Bard high school grammar

I have many more items on my wish lists at Amazon and Rainbow Resource, but these are my biggest needs. If you are interested in anything I have for sale or would be willing to sell or exchange for any of my needs/wants, please email me at hsbvictorious@hotmail.com - thanks!

When I was younger I had an uncle who was a pastor and went to Haiti every summer on missions. I remember looking at his photos and maybe even some video footage. So when I was 17 and had to choose which country I was going to "visit" during a weeklong summer youth camp, I chose Haiti. Billy was there too and we spent the week learning about Haiti and its culture from the comfort of that Georgia youth camp. Unfortunately I can't remember half of it.

Now I am a member of a church which actively supports Haitian missions. (Right now Robin has some pictures on her blog from when she went to Haiti.) After the first mission trip some church members took, Billy told me he wanted to go the next time. Unfortunately, we never bothered getting his passport or saving money for him to go. But one of these days we'll both go and I have already been assured by the Holy Spirit that God wants us to go, so I trust that He will pay the way.

Anyway, for about the past year or so I've been wanting to do some type of study with my children about Haiti. I have had the worst time trying to find ANYTHING besides a few picture books, info about Aristide, and cold dry facts about the history, climate, and culture. In other words, besides the picture books for the little ones, I can't find any "living books" about Haiti. I can't find activities for kids to do that would help them understand the culture, like you can easily find for other countries like China or Mexico. I can't find anything from a Christian perspective, either. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough. Maybe I am not thinking to look in the most obvious places. So I am asking that if anybody has any suggestions or ideas or recommendations, PLEASE let me know! Thanks!

Science right now for the little ones is trees and leaves. We went to the neighborhood playground to collect leaves from the trees around the lake, for leaf rubbings. We identified the 3 main groups of trees - 

conifer:

broadleaf: 

and palm: 

We picked leaves:

And wildflowers:

Then played on the playground for a while -

Taz:

Sweetcheeks:

Taz and Littlebit:

Sweetcheeks:

Then we went home and completed leaf rubbings.

After I gave in to God and threw away all of my catalogs and plans, it wasn't long before He started speaking to me about next school year. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He wants us to use Tapestry of Grace Year 2 next school year for our core curriculum, for the entire family. All we will need to add is math and science, whatever language arts is not included (still trying to figure that out), and electives.  I also plan on incorporating Florida history along with TOG (over the next 3 years, if we continue using it that long) and already have plenty of resources for that!

Taz and Sweetcheeks will continue to use Horizons Math, and I think Tank and Boss will use Teaching Textbooks for their math.

For science, we are going to study (as a family) astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, and if there's time, geology.

Through a variety of resources, we are also going to study (as a family) music appreciation.

For other electives, my oldest will take driver's ed (starting soon, though we won't count it on his records until he gets his license next year), and whatever else he wants/needs to take. We've talked about foreign language, drama (maybe through church?) and/or film-making (if we can ever get the boys from church together to work on this movie project of theirs!), computer programming (of course!), and health. I could probably give him a 1/2 credit for cooking, but I don't want to call it "Home Ec" for a boy! Maybe "Culinary Arts"?  

 We haven’t always homeschooled our children. Bill attended public school for Kindergarten through the first semester of third grade. The year that Bill was in the third grade, Dylan was in Kindergarten at the same school. Bill was an excellent student, and from the time he was in Kindergarten his teachers all said he should be in gifted classes. However, it wasn’t until the end of second grade that his teacher formally requested that he be tested for the gifted program. That July, Bill was tested, and as expected, his IQ was very high: 144 for Verbal IQ, 125 for Performance IQ, and 137 for Full Scale IQ. His vocabulary tested "off the charts ... past college level".

I was very excited about his third grade year. He was to be in a multi-grade class with an integrated curriculum, and he would go to gifted classes every day for some of his subjects. Bill, however, was not so sure. Second grade had left him feeling very stressed out. He was so far ahead of his classmates that school was very boring for him. He refused to do his homework because it was “too easy”. He hated school, even though he excelled at it. He faked illnesses just to stay home. His temper flared at every little thing. I knew he needed to get out of the public school system, and I dreaded the thought of living the next 18 or so years by someone else's schedule, so I mentioned the idea of homeschooling to him and he was hooked. He was ready to quit public school and start learning at home.

Billy did not like that idea at all. He wanted Bill to try the gifted program to see if that made school any better for him. Billy told Bill that if the gifted program turned out to be nothing more than extra homework - which we had heard it was - then he could start homeschooling. I wanted to take Bill out anyway, but I knew I needed to be submissive to Billy and just take it to the LORD in prayer. So that's what I did.  

As it turned out, being in the gifted program DID just mean more homework, and the subjects Bill went to gifted class for, were not the subjects he was strongest in! Being in gifted class was also just another way to say, Bill is in classes one grade ahead of his peers. So, he went straight from 2nd grade math to 4th grade math- subtraction to division, with no learning of multiplication. It was a nightmare! 

Bill was so stressed out, that he would refuse to go to school. He would fake being sick several times a week, and the stress actually did make him sick more often than normal. And we thought his temper was bad before - he became absolutely uncontrollable after just a couple of months of "gifted" classes. It got so bad, that one day when he refused to go to school and we tried to force him to go anyway, that one of our neighbors called the sheriff's office on us! 

That morning, after Bill calmed down enough to get in the car, I took him to see the school psychologist. I explained the situation to her, and she said, and I quote, "All he's getting from the gifted program is extra homework. He's not cut out for the public school system. There's nothing we can do to help him."

Hallelujah!

Billy stuck to his word and let me pull Bill out of public school at the end of the first semester. I had had plenty of time to research homeschooling, plus I'd been homeschooled myself for a few years, and with all the stress public school had offered, I knew enough that I didn't want to do "school at home" with Bill. I decided that we would do unit studies along with LLATL and a math program.

One day we went to the park and there just happened to be a group of homeschoolers there. It turned out a couple of women I already knew were in the group! That is where I met HyperMusicMom. Having a homeschool support group REALLY helped a lot! It wasn’t long after that, that we started attending our church, where we met even more homeschoolers, including Contented.

After Bill started homeschooling, Dylan decided that he didn't like school, either. Billy made him finish Kindergarten at the public school, and he started homeschooling in the 1st grade. Gradually, homeschooling became more of a lifestyle and a conviction than an educational alternative, and I now consider my children “homeschooled from birth”. I hope that this lifestyle and conviction is passed on to each of them, so that my grandchildren will be homeschooled, too.