Owings Ohana Homeschool

I’m just not good at this blogging thing.  It’s been 6 months since I last blogged!   I guess I’m just busy….Alot has happened the first 6 months of this year.    Mostly, hubby got orders and for you non-military families that means we move.   We have a house here (Hawaii) and we are trying to sell it.   I’m really trying to be patient and work on God’s timeline but that is easier said than done!  So if anyone wants to say a little prayer….we could use them.  We’ve had lots of lookers, even lowered our price but so far no takers.   Maybe God’s buyer isn’t on island yet.

We are suppose to be headed to TX.  At least we know hubby is.  El Paso – Ft Bliss to be exact.  Anyone out there from there?   We are all excited about the move.  Even the oldest who says he’s not…I know down deep he’s excited about a change.   He loves Hawaii though and this is "home" to him.  

We are almost done with our school year.  Just finishing up a few things.   My boys are going to camp most this summer (at least we think so)   They are both going to be Eagle Scouts by the first part of July!  they have their Board of Review this week….so excited.  I’ve been working as hard as I can to have their Scout albums finished in time for their Eagle Court of Honor.   They deserve it.  They’ve worked very hard.

I’ll try to pop in and write more often…it’d probably do me good. 

A fellow homeschool parent, innocently mentioned to me one day how their family listens to books instead of reading all the time.   She was explaining how it was a nice change of pace and actually the cost wasn’t much more than purchasing a book and sometimes even less.   I had to check this out.     So I did and I LOVE it!   AUDIBLE.COM (http://www.audible.com) has a very wide selection of books available for purchase.  You can download them onto your computer, iPod, MP3 player and more!   Once purchased, they are available for downloading as many times as you’d like.    They have several different payment plans.   You have the option to be a member or not; however, the cost is higher if you are not a member.    We purchased the yearly plan.   Audible Listener is available for $9.95 a year.   We receive about an average of a 30% discount and can purchase a book anytime.   For those listeners who would buy more, they offer a Gold & Platinum membership as well with opportunities to earn credits towards books.

Why would we do this?  I have 3 children – 12; 14 and 16.  We use a curriculum that calls for some old classics which, even I admit, can be difficult in reading smoothly sometimes.    The children love this idea of being able to listen (and follow along in the book).    It’s worked very well for us.

We’ve listened to Beowulf (an epic poem in Old English set in the Viking era).  My oldest is currently listening to The Scarlet Letter by Nathanel Hawthorne and we just purchased A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens.  We’ve read A Christmas Tale before and we watch it each Christmas season, but thought we’d listen to it this year for a change. 

when life is busy!  I cannot believe it's been so long since I've blogged.  I really should and want to make this at least a weekly thing.  I really enjoy it out here.  I think I found I was spending too much time reading blogs and ignoring the things of the household.    We've also have a very good school year.  I cannot believe we are 1/2 way done.   It's our 8th year and it seems I'm finally getting this thing down!  LOL    It's been a very productive, successful year to date.  

We are anxious for yet another Christmas here in Hawaii.  It's our 6th Christmas season here.   It's hard to believe we've been here longer than anywhere else in our 19 years of marriage!  This is really where our children call “home”.   

We've been so busy this year.  I cannot believe it's almost over and 2007 is right around the corner…..I think I'll add blogging more often on my list of resolutions this year LOL

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

I happen to just randomly come across Saved By Grace's blog today and she's got a great article on homeschoolers and socialization published at CNSNews.com.    Why not run by and read it for yourself!   I think you'll be encouraged by it. 

Our recent Netflix viewings were the following….All great choices for families in my opinion.   I've linked the movie to Netflix, hopefully it gets ya to the right place if you want to check it out!

The Gospel…if you've not seen this one you should.  It's rated PG and apporpriate for most family members.    It's a story about a son who drifts from God and returns home 15 yrs later when he finds his dad is ill.  I guess one could say a modern day prodigal son story.  Great story, great music.     5 thumbs up

The World's Fastest Indian….another good family flick.  My husband and children really enjoyed it.   It was good but I wasn't really in the mood to watch a movie at the time.    Based on a true story.    5 thumbs up

Eight Below….EXCELLENT family film.  Might be scary in a couple of parts for little ones but overall it's a great family film.  A little slow in some parts.  What amazing creatures those dogs are.  Truely amazing.   Also based on a true story.   5 thumbs up