Last year (our first year of homeschooling) we were so incredibly blessed by the Lord through our friends that we received ALL the curriculum we needed for our 2007-2008 school year plus some for 2008-2009!

Because it was either donated to us or free for shipping, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to look at various materials by different publishers, try them out, and decide what would work best for each child in our family when the time came to get materials for the 2008-2009 school year. We really enjoyed them all in various ways, but for ease of use this year, availability of getting materials used, and to be able to use what we already had on hand to fill in the gaps, this is what we’ve come up with for our new year!

Preschool Age 4
Language Arts
Get Ready For The Code Book A
Math
Classic Curriculum Arithmetic Series 1 Book 1

1st Grade Age 6
Bible
CLP Studying God’s Word Book A

History/Geography
CLP American People And Nations

Language Arts
Explode The Code Book 1
Explode The Code Book 2
Beyond The Code Book 1

Math
Alpha Omega Math 100

Science
Alpha Omega Science 100

3rd Grade Age 9
Bible
CLP Studying God’s Word Book D

History/Geography
Abeka Our American Heritage

Language Arts
Alpha Omega Language Arts 300

Math
Alpha Omega Math 300

Science
Alpha Omega Science 300

7th Grade Age 12
Bible - devotions and Bible reading

History/Geography
CLP Story Of The Middle Ages

Language Arts
Alpha Omega Language Arts 700

Math
Saxon 76

Science
Alpha Omega Science 700

9th Grade Age 14
Bible - devotions and Bible reading

History/Geography
Alpha Omega History/Geography 900

Language Arts
CLP Applications Of Grammar Book 3

Math
Alpha Omega Math 900

Science
Alpha Omega Science 900

Art
CLP Line Upon Line: An Incremental Approach to Drawing

We actually started our 2008-2009 year a few weeks ago as I’ve said before, in preparation for our new baby to arrive. That way we can take our “Summer break” later, and so far they are enjoying everything.  A couple of subjects for the older girls we’ve been waiting on but they arrived today.  I found that I could get the Alpha Omega Lifepac teacher’s manuals for no more than $3.45 each (and that’s if you need to buy credits) from PaperBackSwap.Com That website has become my new best friend! I’ve already been gathering materials for 2009-2010!

So anyway, those are our basics of the year, but of course we are also gathering here and there, lots of good books to read and glean from in our personal time and during our school time.

Here we go into year two of being a home educating family!

What a wonderful day to celebrate our country's freedom AND our freedom in Christ! He is good!! It's about 9pm and my husband is working at the hospital tonight, so the children and I are just headed outside to watch what we can see of the fireworks in a neighboring town. There are perks to living high up on a hill...you can see for miles and no traffic! LOL Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans and let us not forget what today means!

Declaration Of Independence

by Thomas Jefferson

In Congress, July 4, 1776

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

WHEN, in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That, to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,-That, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and Payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to, the Civil Power.

He has combined with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;

For depriving us, in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury;

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences;

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies;

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering, fundamentally, the Forms of our Governments;

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress, in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,-Enemies in War,-in Peace, Friends.

WE, THEREFORE, the REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, DO, in the Name and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly PUBLISH and DECLARE, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And, for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Josiah Bartlett	Matthew Thornton
William Whipple	John Hancock
Samuel Adams	Robert Treat Payne
John Adams	Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Hopkins	William Ellery
Rodger Sherman	William Williams
Samuel Huntington	Oliver Wolcott
William Floyd	Frances Lewis
Philip Livingston	Lewis Morris
Richard Stockton	John Hart
J Witherspoon	Abra Clark
F Hopkinson
Robert Morris	J Smith
Benjamin Rush	George Taylor
Benjamin Franklin	James Wilson
John Morton	George Ross
George Clymer
Caesar Rodney	Thomas M'Kean
George read
Samuel Chase	Charles Carroll
William Paca	Thomas Stone
George Wythe	Thomas Nelson Jr.
Richard Henry lee	Francis Lightfoot Lee
Thomas Jefferson	Carter Braxton
Benjamin Harrison
William Hooper	John Penn
Joseph Hewes
Edward Rutledge	Thomas Lynch Jr.
Thomas Heyward Jr.	Arthur Middleton
Button Gwinnett	George Walton

Lyman Hall

My friend Leeanne shared a link to a software program, to which she gave a raving review, that will organize ALL your books with very little effort. If you collect books like we do as a home educating family you have more than just a handful of them to organize!

The program is fittingly called All My Books and was created by Bolide Software.  Now you may be thinking…I don’t have very many books to organize, or that you already have a good system of keeping track, but may I encourage you to just take a peek!

It’s more than just a generic organizer, it’s a visual compilation of every book you have in your home! Not just that, but just by plugging in the ISBN number found on or in most every book with the click of the button it will load and save to a database the title, publishing year, a photo of your book if available, the dimensions of the book, a synopsis of what the book is about, and any comments or reviews that other readers have shared! You do nothing but enter in a bit of info and All My Books does the rest pulling the rest of the information from book databases found online! It can even find books by the title and author that may not have an ISBN number!

And hold on to your library cards! It does MORE!! You can create an HTML page to publish online to share every book you have in your collection with others, you can export a list of the books you have in your collection to take with you to book fairs or swaps, so you don’t get something you already have, and it also has a loan/return feature so in case you are like me and often loan out your books, you know who has it and when it should be returned. There is so much more that you just have to try it and see! I am REALLY enjoying what I’ve seen and it’s been a great help to us!

If you are ready to download it and try it free for 30 days, just visit the All My Books information and download page by clicking the link below:

http://www.bolidesoft.com/allmybooks.html

After 30 days if you have found you love it as much as I do, there are various options for purchasing which can be found in the section titled Active Special Offers also found on the information and download page!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Nope probably not, it’s the business owner’s right to service whom they choose, but I’d say not too wise! We used to like Subway, and thought cool a contest, until a friend on a message board brought this to my attention! Home educators read for yourselves!

Subway Contest

When you get there scroll to the bottom and read the fine print…

“Contest is open only to legal US residents, over the age of 18 with
children in either elementary, private or parochial schools that serve
grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted”.

Um, if you are legally home educating, don’t you feel you should legally be allowed to enter? I do! Anyone want to join me in an email campaign?!

This is the only place I’ve found to contact them, but if anyone has another way or email address, please leave a comment!

Subway Contact Form

-------------------

This is an update to my previous post here

Could This Be Descrimination?

Looks like they have apologized! Thanks to all who participated in the email campaign!

On May 27, 2008 the following was sent by HSLDA on the behalf of home educators.

Dear Mr. DeLuca:

By way of introduction, I am the President of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and we represent 83,000 member families nationwide. This letter is to draw attention to your “Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest,” and the unfortunate fact that homeschoolers are not allowed to participate.

The rules clearly state: “Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted (emphasis added).”

It is extremely disappointing that Subway would choose to exclude the estimated 2 million homeschooled students.

We understand that the competition is focused on traditional public and private schools because the grand prize of $5,000 of athletic equipment is designed to be used by a traditional school and not an individual family. A potential homeschool winner, however, could simply donate the grand prize to a public or private school of their choice or to a homeschool sports league.

Homeschooling is a thriving educational option. All the available research shows that homeschoolers are excelling academically and socially. We do not deserve to be overlooked.

We hope that you will reconsider the rules of your competition and choose to amend them to include homeschoolers.

Sincerely,

J. Michael Smith

HSLDA President

---------------------------------------------------------------

On May 28, 2008 Subway responded with this:

To HSLDA:

We at SUBWAY restaurants place a high value on education, regardless of the setting, and have initiated a number of programs and promotions aimed at educating our youth in the areas of health and fitness.

We sincerely apologize to anyone who feels excluded by our current essay contest. Our intention was to provide an opportunity for traditional schools, many of which we know have trouble affording athletic equipment, to win equipment. Our intent was certainly not to exclude homeschooled children from the opportunity to win prizes and benefit from better access to fitness equipment.

To address the inadvertent limitation of our current contest and provide an opportunity for even more kids to improve their fitness, we will soon create an additional contest in which homeschooled students will be encouraged to participate. When the kids win, everyone wins!

Just sharing a scanned copy of a photo a sister at our church took the night of the graduation ceremonies! It was a long, but blessed night, hence some of the tired looking faces.
Blessings, Dawn

I’m hosting a book sale for Usbourne books if anyone is looking for anything. We don’t earn money from this sale, but your purchases help me to earn free books for our homeschool! You can visit my sale page by clicking the link below!

Hosted by: Dawn Huffmaster
Place: www.ubah.com/HOS114531
When: Today thru 7/14/2008 11:59:00 PM
Everyone is welcome, so invite a friend!

Blessings, Dawn

Our church had graduation services for our kindergarten and high school homeschool graduates, as well as our college graduates, so I thought I’d share a photo of our 5yo enjoying her special night, as well as a group photo of our children.

As for homeschooling, we still have just a couple of weeks to go and then we’re off for the summer…at least from the textbooks, but of course we never stop learning!

Here she is with her diploma!

And our children ages 13, 12, 8, 5, 3, and 2!

And last but not least, another pic of our 3yo because she wasn’t smiling in the family one, and her smile is so precious to me that I didn’t want it missed!

Blessings, Dawn

This is our oldest daughter teaching herself to play the piano, and just thought I would share a little video clip.

Just click the play button to start the video!

Blessings, Dawn

It seems to be a busy time of year for us, but it’s SPRING!!

It had been rainy the last week, but the last 2 days have been beautiful! My husband is anxiously awaiting the end of his first semester of nursing school. It’s been a great time of learning though with some fun thrown in here and there, but it’s time for a much needed break! He’s got just about a month left before Summer break.

I’m doing very well, but seem to be nesting quite early. I figure better to do it during my 2nd trimester than when I’m huge, tired, and hot in August! You can keep up with pregnancy updates at my pregnancy journal below:

Click HERE for my baby journal!

The children are doing well for the most part! All still learning to find their places in our home. It’s so much fun to watch their personalities change as they grow. Sometimes they show a little “too much” personality LOL and we deal with that, but otherwise it’s exciting to watch them grow in the Lord.

This week I’ll be taking our oldest 3 children to another town for IOWA testing. That’s a standardized test required by our state for public school children as well as homeschooled children. We are blessed to only have to take the reading and math portions of the test though, which will take just 1 morning to finish, whereas other children must take a complete battery of tests taking 2-3 days. It’s something we have to do here though to legally homeschool, but I’m blessed, SO blessed to have our children home, so I’ll jump through this minor State Board Of Education required hoop. LOL For me it officially marks the “near” end of our very first homeschooling year…the first of many to come! It’s been a great time of learning in all areas!

I do have a few requests I’d like to share with my readers. My oldest daughter (age 13) is battling illness last night mostly and into today and could use your prayers for strength and healing along with wisdom for Jack and I as her parents and caregivers.

UPDATE 4/26: Our oldest daughter is doing well now! Seems it was just a virus!

Also , our youngest son (age 2) is believed to have some hearing issues, due possibly to fluid in his ears. We’re using another medication to see if that will clear up and he goes back to be checked the middle of this month. If the fluid is still present, we will have to prayerfully consider further treatment for this. Please pray for him as well and that this fluid is all that is causing his issues. He doesn’t feel badly with this issue…he’s 100% boy all the time, so that is a blessing!

Update 4/26: The fluid is gone and his hearing is 100% fine!

And lastly, please pray for the Lord’s continued provision to our family in every way! We have some personal needs at this time, but we’re keeping our eyes on the Lord while serving Him and our faith and trust lies in Jesus alone!

Thank you for reading our updates, and have a wonderfully blessed Sabbath!

Blessings, Dawn

Just click the play button to watch the video!

Blessings, Dawn

As most of you know this is our first year homeschooling, so I thought I would update on how it's going! Well, IMHO I think it's going great!! Our oldest daughter (13) has finished up ALL her schooling for the year....2 months early, so now she's helping me with the other children until our school year officially ends in May. Our 12 yo daughter is doing very well too, and has finished all but 2 subjects. For our 8yo and 5yo things have moved a bit more slowly which is totally OK with me, both are doing great though!

That is why I am LOVING homeschool...each child can move and work at his or her own pace! It was overwhelming, but I'm getting the hang of things I think. SO much curriculum and fun things to choose from to do!! It's amazing and pretty cool! This year has really been a blessing as I have gotten to know my children so much better. We missed out on so many years with them, but the Lord is restoring the years the locusts had eaten as He promised!

Joel 2:25
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

Well...all for now. The link to our family website is just below my blog title here so feel free to visit us there as well, for more happenings around our house!
Blessings, Dawn

Petition to Request Depublishing of California Court Case In re Rachel L.

Please Sign this Petition to Support Homeschool Freedom in California. 

A California Court of Appeal recently decided that homeschooling is illegal in California unless a parent is a certified teacher.

The case arose in a confidential juvenile court proceeding. The family was represented by court-appointed attorneys and HSLDA did not become aware of the case until the Court of Appeal case was published on February 28, 2008.

The Court could have restricted its decision to the facts before it, but instead, it issued a broad ruling that effectively outlaws home education in California. The Court also certified its decision for publication, which means that the decision can now be cited as legal authority by all other courts in California.

The family and their California counsel are planning to appeal to the Supreme Court of California, which could result in reversal.

Another option to keep homeschooling free in California is to petition the Supreme Court of California to “depublish” the opinion. If the opinion is “depublished” then it cannot be used by other California courts and this threat to homeschool freedom will be neutralized for other California homeschoolers.

HSLDA will be formally petitioning the California Supreme Court to depublish the opinion. We would like to show that many other people, both in California and across the country, care deeply about homeschool freedom in California.

Please show your support for this effort by signing the petition today.

Link To Sign This Petition

Note: You do not have to be a California resident to sign this petition, but you should be a registered voter of your state.

Another good site to visit is ParentalRights.Org From the site, under the about us section says:

Our campaign exists to secure a constitutional amendment that defends the rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children. At ParentalRights.org, we believe that no government, regardless of how well-intentioned it might be, can replace the love and nurture of a parent in the life of a child. It’s a relationship worth protecting.

That’s why our sole purpose is to amend the U.S. Constitution to protect parental rights. Without secured parental rights, the vital child-parent relationship is exposed to the imminent danger posed by anti-parent judges within the federal courts, as well as to the risks of international law which seeks to undermine the parental role.

The Parental Rights Amendment will ensure that the special relationship shared by children and their parents is protected and secured for generations to come.
By placing current Supreme Court doctrine into the express language of the U.S. Constitution, the Parental Rights Amendment will shield the child-parent relationship from government intrusion. It will ensure that parental rights are preserved as a fundamental constitutional right.

Blessings, Dawn

The children are doing wonderfully in their homeschooling! I have one that really dislikes math, but that one disliked it more in public school! It’s not that said child doesn’t do well once they DO the work, just getting them to do it…well! :)

In fact all the children have an A average in all their subjects. Some would say, well that’s because you are doing the grading. NOT SO! They know I cut them NO slack! ROFL It’s SUCH a blessing and privilege to be educating our children, as it should be! More important than academics though, we are learning more about the Lord, together as a family!

And last but not least, the Lord we are learning so much more about, has blessed our family once again. Our 7th child is due to arrive in late August and I’m entering my 9th week. If you haven’t already been reading, my pregnancy journal is linked in the sidebar under the main menu heading. In our church there has been many other pregnancy announcements in the last few months, and it’s such a blessing to watch the Lord grow our fellowship and be a part of that growth!

Blessings, Dawn