I'm wondering if anyone out there has used Making Math Meaningful and now is into high school math? What are you using? MMM doesn't go beyond Jr. High level and I hate to leave it! Any suggestions for upper level math for the "right brain" crowd? Do you think going to Saxon would be a huge change?

I would love to know what others have done! Thank you!

The smell of my three year old's head after a nap.

The sound of the wind through the big Cottonwood tree outside my bedroom window.

The way my 10 year old uses me as a pillow while watching a movie.

The sound of my husband's voice reading to the children in the room down the hall.

The way the desert in Arizona smells after it rains.

Telling my 8 year old to dry her tears and not care if she is made fun of for wearing pink and she comes out of her room the next day in a total hot pink outfit. (You go girl!)

Tulips in snow.

My 12 year old telling me I don't have to read the subtitles  on his video game we're playing together. "Mom, I can read." (We worked REALLY hard for that. It's music to my ears.)

Hearing my children pray!

My 12 year old kissing me in front of all his friends. He's not a mama's boy, but he sure loves his mama!

Reading the Psalms.

Falling asleep in my husband's arms.

The last 24 hours have taught me so much. It started out with my dd Cady who is 10, running in the back yard full speed, bare foot (you know where this is going) and stepped on a board with a screw sticking up from it. Yep, all the way in and boy did it hurt. She cried & cried and then calmed down. I was holding her trying not to be disappointed that my big project of cleaning and organizing my "school closet" wasn't getting done. Please don't be too hard on me - I have been waiting 9 months to do this and was "in the zone" if you know what I mean!  This morning I was going to get back into our school schedule that had been on hold because we had grandparents visit and other things going on in April. We went to the doctor instead and waited a very long time for x-rays and a DT shot. My sweet Cady was smiling and thanking the nurse and x-ray tech and the doctor and she took her shot with grace (better than I would have done) and hopped on one foot all around and was still smiling. In the last few hours we have had a discussion about why God lets bad things happen to His people and why there is sin in the world and how much we hate it. "Can I be mad at Adam and Eve when I see them in heaven?" "We are no better sweetheart. All of our hearts are desperately wicked, who can know it?"

It hit me ~ again ~ this IS homeschooling! Today let's forget the books in the closet (well ~ on the kitchen table right now) and let's forget our schedule ~ This IS school. We covered theology, science (in the doctor's office looking at the posters and x-rays), and anger management. I think we might do a little home ec. later - she requested cookies to make her foot feel better. :) I love having my kids at home and I thank God for my sweet Cady.

Here I am blogging again - I think this is how I unwind. Our last two days have been spent at our private school/ homeschool track meet. It is always a fun two days and we get to spend time with our friends. I was thinking today as we were coming home about the saying - "it's not if you win or lose it's how you play the game"! Well, you know what - it's fun to win and I'm all for it - but today I really found out how proud you can be of your child. Yes, I had one of my three kids do GREAT - she won everything - but though I'm proud of her - I cried with pride for my son - who, though was almost last in the 400 meter, felt sick afterward, was called names by another kid he was running by (during the race), and told me he didn't want to run anymore - ran the 200 meter anyway and gave it his ALL. This is one of the many reasons I homeschool - so I can be close to him and his heart and know what a victory this was for him. I am so proud!

God bless you all in your journeys!

I hope this isn't taken wrong, but I'm feeling a real need to relax. Relax about my homeschooling, my house and all the "guilts" that hang over our heads as moms wanting to please God and meet expectations. (I'm finding that when I relax, I get more done - wow)! When my kids were small we use to sit on the grass and draw and make up poems. We took walks and had friends over. We helped the neighbors and made cookies, etc. Now that they are middle aged I find myself starting to get stressed. What if..... This worry and stress and fear is robbing me of what education at home can be, and that is different than the "world". Who says we can't learn AND be relaxed. I believe God would like this for our family and this is what I am going to work toward as we keep on this journey! It hit me the other day that God's word commands us to be available for others, to have people over (I've not been too good at this), hospitality! My children will learn from this hospitality and God will take care of all the other what ifs! As for me - I'm going to relax, OK - at least make that my goal!

I am asking God for wisdom. I have a wonderful DS who is 3 who is not like my other kids at all. He has taken so much of my endurance and brain cells. He is a loving, SMART child who loves to talk to adults or anyone who will listen. He started talking when he was 1. People describe him as old beyond his years - yet he doesn't get the potty training thing and really looks surprised sometimes when he is being punished for an obvious wrong. (hurting people or things) He likes to hurt things, pound things, tear things, bang things, and doesn't get it when big brother cries because he hit him with a heavy object. (Yes - we do disipline!) He can watch TV all day (if we let him - and I have too much at times because he is not hurting something during those times) He wants so much of me to sit and play and read and TALK and I do feel so bad not being there more for him - yet I homeschool three others. The big kids play with him and I do carve out my time with him - yet it's never enough it seems. He has always had very specific ways he wants things done, or ideas he gets frustrated over. He LOVES to draw (Daddy is an artist), play with play dough and look at books. (He never wanted to play with little kid plastic toys) So much of the time he seems frustrated or fussy or agitated yet on the otherhand has a great smile and loves to be with people and laugh. Any one else out there with a dear little one like this? Anyone know what it all means.He is my precious gift from God - so glad he's here and I tell him that all the time - just want God's wisdom on how to raise this special one. Pray for me please!

Just wanting to say to whoever sees this that I FINALLY FOUND a spelling program that I like. We are a right brained family - we like to be creative, fun, and undisciplined! (Well - we are working on that one.) We like to know why - not just do it - we like a "framework" to hang everything we learn on and we don't like to memorize stuff. (We just arn't good at that, though we force ourselves to with the math facts and Scripture.) My husband's degree is in art and I graduated from a Bible college with a degree in church counseling - AHAH - we don't learn the normal way!  (What's normal?) 

We also tend to have a little dyslexia around here too - SO - HERE ARE MY PICKS for curriculum for the rightbrained family:

Math     Making Math Meaningful   (and they do)

Writing     The Institute for Excellence in Writing - Student Writing Intensive (make sure you get the DVD's because he is really etertaining which we rightbrainers thrive on!)

Spelling     AVKO Sequential Spelling 1 for Home School (we hate spelling around here and I couldn't find something that "fit" us. Well - here it is. The AVKO Dyslexia Research Foundation puts it out (don't know much about them) and we LOVE it. You don't study! and they are learning more than ever!

ART - of course - can't live without that!

Thats it  - we supplement everything else according to our desire that day and Daddy reads aloud to them most nights. (That's called history AND vocabulary!)

To all you unique learners And teachers out there - God bless and have fun - you're not alone!

I don't know about you - but I have spent the last 39 years waiting for life to start. I've not been unhappy and I have had a relationship with my Savior Jesus from 9 years on - yet it wasn't till this week that I realized THIS IS LIFE. I look back and realize that I keep waiting for the perfect life, the perfect feeling, the perfect school day - then I'll let down and settle into God's blessings and be content. ( This must be a generational American thing).

Guess what? This is life and it is this journey that God has blessed us with and it is this journey that teaches us and molds us and draws us to Him - and I can be content with that - knowing that someday we will not need to journey anymore and will be in a perfect place with Him.

So today I will take it for what it is - we just moved, there are boxes all over the place, the kids arn't adjusting too well, and we have new puppies! God has given me today and we might just take an hour to sit on the couch and read and thank God for TODAY!