I can hardly believe it has been a year since I’ve blogged! Getting in and figuring all of this out again is a task all in itself. Perhaps I will get back to this, we shall see. 
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Over the last year our family has enjoyed the beautiful wedding of our oldest (1G22), her continued college education and graduation in only a week as an Aerospace Engineer, and we are gearing up for much work this summer for her book series(www.jessicalynncampos.com) and the possible release of an entirely new series as well. Very busy. It has been quite an experience to become a mother-in-law and to have a married daughter. It has made me look back on my own relationship with my parents years ago as a newlywed and my own experience has clearly induced changes for my own behavior toward my grown children. What a blessing to watch newlyweds build and strengthen their home together, and I am appreciative we are in a position to support their one-ness.
Daughter number two (2G18) has been busy completing her final year of high school this year! I am excited for her graduation event in two short weeks. We are busy planning decorations, finalizing changes to a video she plans to show, and in the midst of it all we are still finishing coursework. This experience of writing a transcript hasn’t been quite as bad as I thought. I have been pleased with what she has accomplished with her busy little life. Throughout the last almost four years she has worked at our church preschool while carrying a full load of school work. And in the last year I have begun an additional job, from home, but still, between the two of us working homeschool together has become an incredible juggling act this last year. And then, in just this final semester, she has felt the calling to a nursing career, possibly through the National Guard! So we crammed an Anatomy & Physiology course into everything else so she would be sure to have more exposure as she continues to listen to the still small voice of God and His will for her life. Two short weeks, we will hand her diploma to this young woman–she is an inspiration to me!
The excitement builds for a new part of our homeschool journey as all three boys will be my continued focus from here on out. They are now 3B11, 4B5, and 5B3, and are all anxious to learn. Our autistic 3B11 has finally begun reading more every day and is thriving with historical read-alouds. He is definitely an auditory learner and I look forward to next winter being curled up on a couch reading together for much of our studies. This summer I plan to have us venture outside more as we continue to work on his fear of bugs and the outdoors. We added a small dog to the family and she has been an incredible influence on working him out of his comfort zone and through many of his obsessive issues with the great outdoors. Three boys in our homeschool, all learning together, this is going to be a blast!
I just bought Math-U-See for this next year. We’ll see how that goes. Of course, the boys love manipulatives, but it turns out I also really like the way this course explains things. I am praying that it works beautifully for us. We will continue to use My Reading Coach. We’ve been reading The Story of the World for bedtime and I plan to do that each year. I should easily take all three boys through the set three, maybe four, times before we begin Mystery of History once they are older. I’m also working in more unit studies and lapbook activities with the Download N Go products (www.downloadngo.com) from The Old Schoolhouse. Part of my "day job" includes writing some of the marketing for these items and they really are incredible! And I Love that we end up with a finished product to refer back to, remind us of the information, and to keep–the boys love that! We’ll also be using Handwriting Without Tears, a bit of the games in Go Phonics, and we’ll juggle it all using my revised system from Sue Patrick’s Workbox system (www.workboxsystem.com). You can read more about our adjustments to a drawer system in a post a while back, just scroll down and you should hit it. We will also be venturing out to local day trips, including Laura Ingall’s home in Kansas, so I am excited about that. We’ll begin more of her books beforehand, of course. There is more we will be using as we continue to be very eclectic, but my brain is still on graduation at the moment!
So what are you up to? I know I need to make some rounds of blogs and check in with a few old friends. I apologize for my long absence from Homeschoolblogger. I have missed it. I also need to decide whether to continue teaching our 3s Sunday School class. It is so hard to "just say no" but some weeks I really am far too busy for it all. Please comment, talk with me, if you are new here, friend me. I will do my best to keep up! God bless you.
Copyright 2009 Donna Campos
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I have no real title for this entry, once again I have let months slide by without keeping up on this wonderful blog. Please do take the time to read through old entries if you are here visiting. You may have found me through my book with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC ("Dreams and Designs") or through my daughter’s book "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" –either way, I hope you will take the time to get to know me a bit.
I am looking for thoughts on reaching young people about purity. I’ve begun work on a possible article about purity and the call to fathers in giving away their daughters. We have survived the wedding of our oldest, and it was a glorious day. She was simply beautiful and their love for each other really did radiate from them and encompassed the entire ceremony. We could not be happier.
I am thankful for her innocence and their excitement in looking toward their honeymoon–it is sadly so rare today. In this society it is almost expected that young women would be promiscuous. It is as if it is "a given" that virgins no longer exist, that it is too difficult to stay pure until marriage, and that it really isn’t worth it to do so. Isn’t that just sad? And it is so terribly wrong.
My savior, Jesus Christ, is truly amazing and a miracle worker. My God can forgive all things, but this does not mean that we can afford to teach our children impurity is acceptable on any level, or that they can err in this area and then simply seek repentance. So how do we keep them on the straight and narrow? Our 2G18 is another young woman I am praying desperately will make the right decisions and remain pure until her wedding night. And then our next three children are all boys. I want to know there will be young women out there for them, who find it valuable to retain their virginity and sense of innocence until married.
I would love to hear your thoughts on purity. How can fathers teach their daughters to remain pure until the moment they give them to their groom? What should we be doing as mothers to be an example to our daughters and other young women of purity and modesty? How do we teach our sons and daughters to seek innocence in others when seeking a partner for life? And what influence can we have on the friends of our children to help them stay focused on keeping themselves until marriage?
I’d love to hear from you!
Copyright 2009 Donna Campos
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If you are just visiting for the first time and have found my blog through my book, "Dreams & Designs" from The Old Schoolhouse, WELCOME!! Please drop me a comment so I know you stopped by and feel free to browse my entries. If you haven’t seen the book, and would like to learn more about it, check it out here: Dreams and Designs: Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool (http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=334_425&products_id=12024)
I apologize for my absence from blogging, it is an incredibly busy time for our family. We are in the midst, and now only weeks away, from the wedding of our oldest child. It is a time of wonderful memories, and a bit of intrepidation as I let go of my first baby…and of course, she’ll always be my baby.
At 22, 1G22, will marry a young man of 25, who is already serving his country in the service, and currently completing his degree in Aerospace Engineering, just like her. They have much in common while being really fantastic individuals and make a truly wonderful couple. I am praying for God to bless their union, as I am sure you will join with me in praying for as well.
We continue work on book two in her series and you can still check out book one on her site (www.jessicalynncampos.com) or at amazon under the title "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" or her name. The editing process is slow as we are certainly more focused on her wedding right now. We’ve also put on a few activities at her site if you go and check out the "Book One" tab and find at the top of that page "Available Activities Corresponding to Book One." I’d really love any opinions about the activities. I hope to work out an entire little unit study of some sort, I just don’t have the time right now. But soon.
Homeschooling is forging ahead and 3B10 continues his work with reading. My Reading Coach continues to be a tremendous blessing for him, I don’t know what I would have done had we not reviewed that program. He still complains at times, but then, some days I can’t blame him. A lot of learning is work for him, I don’t know if it is the autism or just him, but it is work. We make it as fun as possible and the Workbox system continues to yield wonderful blessings in that area as well. I can hardly believe 2G17 begins her final year next month officially. They truly do grow up too fast.
We began mounting 3B10′s artwork for "grading" by other family members and his drawing is improving. I wasn’t sure how well he would take to the idea, but he jumped on it, and has taken to heart the tips and advice offered by his older sisters. Anyone can do the same using sticky notes at the bottom or around a picture with whatever grading scale suits their family. The activity really does depend on the child because I would never use it with a child not interested in the idea, then you might do more harm than good, and we’d never want that. But for him, it is working wonders. He just posts a new picture and lets everyone know, or when we notice it we’ll "grade" it appropriately, and then he checks out his grade. He has even gone to some of us to ask why we graded a particular way, wanting to know how he could improve, which was a HUGE thing for him. Having any consideration about what other people think of his work, or anything else for that matter, is one of the big drawbacks with autism, these kids just don’t have it–they very literally couldn’t care less. But this has really drawn him out as he has discovered that he can make improvements by considering other people’s opinions. A new thing!! And a really great way to introduce it.
As usual, 2G17 is remaining very busy with summer activities. This year she has worked as a counselor at a camp for the middle schoolers in her youth group, has attended for the second time a leadership training camp, and just last week was out for the standard week long summer camp with her youth group. We have missed her as at times I feel she is just a blur I watch run in and out of the house!! We also enjoy quite a few evenings with all of the kids over at our house to watch movies, which I really love! It is nice to know they have a safe place to go and hang out together, and I really appreciate that they feel comfortable in our home. Stocking pizza rolls, taquitos and popcorn probably hasn’t hurt either. 
Wedding plans are crazy! We are so close now, less than three weeks. We are knocking out the little annoying details at this point. Decorations for the reception, plans for a bridal shower this weekend, going through her things to determine what she wants to keep/give away/or have us store indefinitely for her. I am so thankful we really do have the space to do so, I only wish we were more organized about it. And my mind seems to be reeling almost constantly. There really are so many aspects to a wedding. And my 2G17 is busily making plans for her "some day" ceremony and all that she may want to have take place. I pray God brings her the right young man in His time, and that he will be a wonderful leader for his family.
I will post our curriculum plans after the wedding has passed and life quiets down again. For now, things are good. 4B4 is into everything and will begin more little activities this year. 5B2 is as adorable as ever and really does think he is "all that and a bag of chips" and regularly cracks us up. And as I said, 3B10 continues to work through his schoolwork fairly well and is enjoying summer afternoons in the little blow up pool their uncle gave them last year. We are blessed this summer, I hope that you are too!
Tell me what you are up to??? I’d really love to hear it.
Copyright 2009 Donna Campos
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Recently we reviewed a fantastic product called "Sue Patrick’s Workbox System" for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC. You can find it at her website, www.workboxsystem.com. This is an awesome product that helps you organize your school day while placing more responsibility on your children to complete their assignments and activities. Please go to the site and check it out, buy the book, and consider using this, it is really awesome!! Since I am actually writing this blog about changes we made to the idea, you need to have a good rundown of the system as it is designed to better understand the changes we made, so please check out her site FIRST.
Part of the concept is about having boxes for the various assignments on a shoe rack, each filled with a particular activity. All activities are "listed" on a handy little strip with velcro to hold handy little numbers to direct your child to the numbered boxes and complete their assignments. This motivates children beautifully because of their desire to clean up the shelf, it is highly rewarding to watch the boxes be cleared out, and the more full boxes be set aside as completed when containing larger items.
The problem we ran into is that one of the things that bothers my son, who functions on the autism spectrum, is disorganization or any mess in his workspace. So we had to make some creative adjustments to the system in order to make it work for him. Add to that, the system uses numbered cards to mark the various boxes for work, along with a strip to place corresponding cards on to guide the student through their day. This is reminiscient of PECS (picture exchange communication system) for us and so we decided to run with that idea because it works very well for our son. SOO, rather than shoe boxes, we converted to a plastic seven drawer system from Walmart for $20. We chose the one with the four small drawers and three larger ones so that we could fit more games and things in the bottom ones and workbooks, reading books, etc. in the top ones. I still use the system base idea, having ALL of the items necessary for each assignment in each drawer, which at times means having pencils in every drawer, scissors or glue in several, etc.
Because we already had PECS for many games and things, we have placed a Picture of a particular game on the strip as an assignment, numbers are used for the drawers, and since the instruction strip provides up to sixteen assignments/activities for a day, we can still be completing that many activities while only using the neat seven drawers for some of them. And some things on the strip may be "lunch" or play in the yard, etc. His assignment strip includes game pictures (he knows to find them at the kitchen table where we complete activity center work), pictures of various work locations for our homeschool (I took pics or pulled them off of Google images of our write on wipe off board, pocket chart, computer programs, even the wii fit jogging program to fulfill Sue Patrick’s running on days when the weather is bad.). These pictures are what we place on his instruction strip and he knows where to go, along with the numbered strips for a particular drawer in his stand. This kept things neat, gave me space to place bulkier items because most things do fit into the larger drawers when necessary, allowed us plenty of activities to still list on his assignment strip, and has fulfilled his need for neatness in the process. It also gave me the ability to roll his cart out of the way when not in use, even to another room when we have company, which is awesome!
And his responsibility level? Wow, it has improved greatly!!! I wholeheartedly recommend this book and the system. And I would definitely purchase the support materials because it will make your job so much easier when you first get started. We mounted the matching velcro to the drawers for both the numbers and the "Work with Mom" PECS and have also expanded our PECS offering to everything I could possibly categorize in our home school. I actually found a pocket chart for 100s made up of 100 two inch squares that hold the PECS perfectly and is awesome for me when planning because I just look over the items we have for school and pick what he needs to work on, then I record it on Sue Patrick’s scheduling sheets to track what we have been doing. Awesome system!! Seriously. And you don’t have to do what we did and make a bunch of PECS for all of your items for school, but we had many PECS already and they just slid right into this system beautifully. And of course, he loves the little pictures of his many activities!
I will try to get pictures on here soon of exactly what we had done. But I encourage you to try this product, if the boxes hold you back, give it some thought. This is the best thing we have ever done for our home school and for the independence of our children to handle their own work load. And I haven’t even touched on the tremendous help it provided for me as I schedule our days. I use Sue Patrick’s Workbox System right along with my high school daughter’s schedule to make sure that my one on one time is scheduled perfectly for each child. This system allows me to easily see when my son will need me and when to schedule independent work for him while I work with my older daughter. If you put your mind to it and really read her book and understand the concept, try it as suggested for a while, and then adjust it to work best for your family. We have found a very happy medium with this and thank Sue Patrick for a tremendous product for homeschoolers. She took many ideas and trial and error and rolled it into a truly usable and helpful way to organize our days successfully!!
Pictures to follow below, check it all out!
Copyright 2009 Donna Campos
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