I know it has been forever since I've blogged. I just got side tracked really. And I know this isn't really what you want to read after looking at the same unblogged page for weeks on end. However, I did at least get rid of the snowmen and changed to a spring look. As I really just spent WAY TOO much time doing just That today, you'll just have to wait for me you fill you in on all the stuff we've been up to until...... tomorrow? Ok look I'll really try to update tomorrow. Promise!!!

Emily has a friend coming over to play tomorrow. So, first thing off the bat this morning she announces she needs to clean her room.

OK WELLL... knowing that Emily is truly my daughter I knew that she wouldn't be able to think of anything else but cleaning her room once her mind was fixed on it.

So.....

I started Bran on some school work and went in to help her get her room straighten to her satisfaction. I was hoping against all odds that this would relieve her mind so I could get her to concentrate on school work afterwards...

During about 15 mins. into the work this is just a few of the things said to me:

"No, MOM that doesn't go there."
"MOM, that goes to the other castle."
"No, we are going to play with that, leave it out."
and my personal favorite...
*heavy sigh* then.....
"MOM, don't you know I want it to look pretty!"

I have capitalized MOM because she said it real snotty like that.

After all this lip I decided I obviously have NO idea how to clean up a 5 yr old's room and left her to it. It appears clean to me now, but she is still in there making final touches. May be one day when she has the patience she will take the time to teach me the proper way to clean.

I am AWESOME!!

OH, OK so is Brandon.

I love building things. OH, the sense of accomplishment! OH, the joy of success. OH, the happiness of showing your husband you can figure out things that he can't and that YES you can do it without him!

In the land of 3 guinea pigs in one small cage there was much trouble. A tad bit of fighting it seemed. So, I was given an extra cage exactly like the one I already had and separated them. OH, the pain and anguish this caused the little dears! They chewed and chewed on the wire between them. They wanted to be together. I really think it was just the small space that drove them to fuss with each other. So.....

I took to two solid metal bottoms and drilled five matching wholes down one side of each and took bolts and wing nuts and bolted them together. This made a little 1 1/2" ledge they have to hop over. Just to be safe I used a wrapping paper tube slit down the side to slip over the ledge to make it a smooth transition from one cage bottom to the other.

Next I took the two wire tops and cut a side out of each one. I left extra wire on one side to wire the two together. Brandon was a lot of help here. Neither of us really had the hand strength to make this an easy job. So, I’m really glad I had his help. I guess this could count as a shop class credit?

The result was a cage twice the size of the original and very happy guinea pigs! When we put them back in they started popcorning. This is a cute little jump they do where they kind of just pop up into the air booty first.

Any way it was great to see them happy again. Also Bran is really proud of the work we did together to make such a nice new cage. He had me take pictures to post.

Laying carpet seems like a simple enough thing, right? You move a little furniture, roll out padding, roll out carpet, and put the furniture back. Simple. Well, I don’t do simple. See my grandparents had a wood burning stove that wasn’t set up correctly when this was their house and because of that our ceilings were stained and covered with soot. Well, actually when we moved in everything was but we had cleaned and painted everything but the ceilings. I decided while the furniture was out of the living room we should paint the ceiling. Since our living room is fairly large I had divided into a living area and a dining area. However, with carpet in the living room I decided I was going to have to move my school room into the living room and move my dining set back into the dining room. So, a one day job became a four day job.

Then I don’t know if I mentioned this but this is gently used carpet given to us by and older couple so we didn’t exactly go out and buy just the right measured amount for our living room. The end result was that we didn’t have enough for every inch of the room. So we have a hallway from our front door to our back door. This in the end turns out perfect, because now all three doors coming from the outside come in on linoleum before you ever step on the carpet. We still have to go get some new linoleum (our current flooring is 20 years old, doesn’t match anything in the room and is u-g-l-y) and we need to get a long transition bar from where the carpet goes to linoleum. I used some of the left over pieces of carpet to make a rug in front of each door and used double sided tape to hold them in place. My biggest concern was that I always sweep up so much sand and dog hair and now it’s going to be all in the carpet… Well, as I’m behind on blogging about this the carpet has been down a week and a half. I vacuum it daily. I know I’ll slack off when the newness wears off but oh well. Oddly enough all the floors seem to be staying cleaner, less sandy, etc. I think the little mats by each door are making a world of difference. Who knew it could be so easily solved?

The dining room looks so nice as an actual dining room. We had stopped eating as a family at the table together every night, but have reinstated that tradition since the change. It has been really nice. I was also really surprised by how homey-er the living room looks with carpet. But the biggest surprise is that we’ve always just used the school room to hold our school supplies but now it is actually functional and we use it every day.

Our FREE carpet ended up costing us supply money to get it laid, plus we paid a neighbor to show Cecil how to lay carpet, then the paint that I added in, then we still have to buy new linoleum to match, BUT I think it has made many well worth it improvements to our house and family.

I have been tagged by my friend Ladyhawk, which is good because I've kind of slacked off on blogging!

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘7 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 7 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 7 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

1) I love lemons! I cut them in half pour on the salt and go to town. However, I don't like anything lemon flavored. No cookies, cake, pie, nothing will do but real lemon with salt.

2) I have a habit of saying bold when I mean bowl. I don't know why I add a "d" I just do. I also drag out aluminum and cinnamon. alummmmmminininummmmm LOL

3) I don't feel like doing housework until sometime around what is considered bed time. Then I get a huge burst of energy and a consuming desire to move furniture and scrub things.

4) I've found teaching phonics challenging because I've discovered that I mispronounce so many words and trying to pronounce them right is almost painful.

5) I'm a compulsive talker or nervous talker, whatever you want to call it. When I catch myself blabbing on… the more I try to stop… the more I go on and on and on and on and on.....

6) I have traffic issues. I can't stand multiple lane highways, overpasses, bridges, road construction, etc. And I don't mean I get irritated by them or road rage, I mean I hyperventilate and have a huge urge to jump out of the vehicle.

7) Once I start something I can’t stand to stop until it is finished. It doesn’t matter if it is reading a book or painting a room, what ever the project is I WANT IT DONE, I WANT IT DONE ALL AT ONE TIME, I DON’T WANT TO PUT THINGS UP AND FINISH IT TOMORROW OR LATTER, I WANT IT DONE NOW! Now, I can put doing things off forever…but once I start I want it done and nothing else exists until it is done!

OK now ya'll know. The secret is out. I'm weird!

Well today is the day. Back to school after the long Christmas break. I tried my best to get the house clean from all the holiday stuff before we went back to work, but then a neighbor gave us their carpet! So now I have this huge roll of carpet and carpet padding in the living room floor until next week when Cecil says he’ll lay it.

We had a great break and I made sure to spend a lot of vegetable (umm….err is that valuable) time with the kids. We played board games, had a fire, popped fireworks, made cookies, set up a bed in the living room and camped out there with snacks and movies. (nope that is definitely vegetable time) But today is back to work day.

How are we doing? Well, since our bed times are shot both kids were still up to around 1-2 AM. This means I was up until 2 AM. However, despite that I got up when DH got up to go to work. I woke Bran up about 30 minutes later and Em up an hour later. I had Bran eat, walk the dogs then do about 20 minutes of exercise to get him going. So far he has done Bible and started his new Saxon 65 (thanks Carmen). He is about to start his history assignment for the day after that I imagine we’ll have to break for lunch.

Emily has drawn a few pictures this morning while I read to her. We read The Story of Exodus, Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Ira Wordworthy, and Puddle’s ABC. Then she did a few pages in her HWT. After that she promptly announced she was tired, crawled into my lap and I’m now typing around her little body in my lap!

Not a bad start I guess. Well, I better get off and get to working with Brandon on his History.

We are all on the hunt for the perfect curriculum. Does it exist? Is it out there? Does everyone know about it and are keeping it a secret from you?



There are literally hundreds of different curriculums to choose from. But how do you know what is best for you and your family?



When I started out (a whole whopping 3 years ago) the first thing I did was order a curriculum kit. I wanted to make sure I covered every subject at my son’s grade level. After all, what if I had to put him back in public school? The last thing I wanted was for anybody to be able to say he fell behind while I was home schooling him! Luckily, an experienced home school mom told me to cancel that order! It was all workbooks. Some thing she advised boys weren’t very keen on. Also, there was very little hands on activities in that particular brand name. So, it wasn’t very well suited for us. That doesn’t mean it isn’t the perfect curriculum for some one else though!



What I’m going the long way around to say is that in order to know what curriculum is best for your family you need to know both your teaching style and your children’s learning style. Each of your children may learn completely differently from each other.



If you are unsure of your child’s learning styles you might want to use something like this chart on learning styles to aid you. Chart on Learning Styles:



http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm.


The following is a brief run down of the main Teaching Styles:



Charlotte Mason Method - The Charlotte Mason Method a unique approach to education focusing on literature and nature. You can find more information about this method at:


http://www.charlottemason.com/



http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/methods/CharlotteMason.htm



Classical Education Method - You can find more about this style at the following links:



http://www.classicalhomeschooling.org/


http://www.welltrainedmind.com/


http://www.gbt.org/clasced.html




Distance Learning or Umbrella Schools- These are courses your child can take through the internet or via mail. There are many different such schools. These schools provide all your curriculum and often do all the recording keeping for you.



Montessori Method - This method introduced by Dr. Montessori, is based on the idea that learning is a natural, self-directed process which follows certain fundamental laws of nature. You can find out more about this method of education at:



http://www.montessori.edu/method.html


Traditional homeschooling - This form of homeschooling is set up basically like public schools with a complete curriculum, traditional grading system, and record keeping.





Unit Studies Approach - The Unit Studies approach handles all subjects together into one theme or topic. They are usually very hands on. To learn more about unit studies try:



http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8259/unitstud.html



http://www.konos.com/



Unschooling Method - Unschooling or child-led learning is well child led. You take the opportunity to educate your child as they show interest in things. To learn more about unschooling check out:

http://home-educate.com/unschooling/



http://www.unschooling.com/



Eclectic Home schooling Method - An eclectic homeschooler uses bits and pieces of the all the methods to fit their needs. In the end I think this is the method most end up with. This is what I personally prefer.

Remember, to think about your special skills and your short comings.



I have a friend that just simply didn’t believe she could teach. So, she uses ABEKA with the disks that play on the computer each day. Her children go to a virtual classroom and she grades their papers.



We like to read books for our history because we find history text books boring! Also, I’m good at crafty stuff and use that in our lessons, but I know I’m too lazy for the Unit Study approach.

Take all these things into consideration when choosing you curriculum and you might just have a chance. However, sometimes you’ll think you’ve chosen the perfect curriculum and then a few weeks into it you’ll discover it just doesn’t work for you. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times. Don’t use it if it doesn’t work! Toss it aside and find something that does.



To end on a bright note....



I think it’s only fair to warn you that in my humble opinion most of picking a curriculum is really trial and error.



So, what do you use?

Wow, how do you ever get any schooling done with all that socialization?

That’s the question non-home schoolers would ask if they knew any better!



Let’s see I did get some educating done on Monday.



Then, Tuesday we had Story Time at the public Library in the morning. Afterwards we went to lunch with some home schooling friends. After lunch the kids decided they still hadn’t had enough play time together. So, we went back to their house for a long visit. When my husband got off work we went to vote and came home to eat supper and go to bed.



Wednesday we did school! Hooray!!!!!



My home school support group is having an picnic at Camp Ford w/a performance by our local Civil War reenactment group on March 17th! So, Thursday, we spent the whole day with my co-leader’s family again planning and shopping for the big event.



Friday is our group’s weekly park day. So, we headed out at 9:30 am. We went to meet another home school group at 12:00 for a picnic at another park. Then 2:30-4:30 we had soccer. After soccer the kids went home with some of the home schooling friends to stay the night, and I crawled home to rest after a long week!



Today I'll try to get all the cleaning done that I didn't do Monday thru Friday.



Tomorrow wee have Sunday school class, morning services, RA's, Mission Friends and evening service.



Then..... it starts all over...



I hope I can get in more than two days of book learning next week....



Now that I think of it. Next week is Spring Break and my birthday. So, on top of Story Time, preparing for the Civil War Picnic, having the Civil War Picnic, soccer, and spending time with our public school family and friends....

Well I guess school's out for us next week... LOL



Sigh… too bad home schoolers don’t get any socialization….



If they did.... I don't think I'd be able to hold up!

I heard somewhere that a housewife works the equivalent of two full time jobs. This fact stuck in my head because I often encounter "career" women who feel I must be bored or have no ambition. Now ponder this, if being a house wife counts as two jobs then deciding to Home school adds so much more...teacher, principle, administrator, field trip coordinator, on and on it goes.

It's no wonder that when I did a search on Home school burn out the list was miles long! Now, we all know what a got it all together gal I am... So, this is not about me, but for your sake I thought we'd take a moment to look into home school burn out.

Burn Out Symptoms

Henry Neils President of Assessment.com
describes burn out as:

1. Chronic fatigue - exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being
physically run down
2. Anger at those making demands
3. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands
4. Cynicism, negativity, and irritability
5. A sense of being besieged
6. Exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things
7. Frequent headaches and gastrointestinal disturbances
8. Weight loss or gain
9. Sleeplessness and depression
10. Shortness of breath
11. Suspiciousness
12. Feelings of helplessness
13. Increased degree of risk taking

As a result of this list I have officially asked Mr. Neils to remove the hidden camera's from my home. I would also like to add that all the articles written by women also listed Crying Easily. Duh...

Now, there are as many causes of burn out as symptoms. Some are completely out of your control. Things like moving, illness, etc. Then there are the controllable causes of stress. Let's face it these are the only things we can do something about! So, let's address them.

My list of causes for stress often looks something like this:

Spouse
kids
pets
house work
home school group responsibilities
church responsibilities

However, this is incredibly flawed thinking. If I truthfully want to come to the bottom of my stress most of the time I need to go no farther than the bathroom mirror. How I respond to things is controllable. I can't control everything in my life but I can control how I respond to them. So, what can I do?

Oh dear we're supposed to be talking about you aren't we....

OK, here is a list of suggestions you can use to help reduce your stress, as we all know I don't stress...

1. Train your kids- Kids disobey it's a fact of life, but if you take
the time to be consistent in training your kids it'll pay off in the
long run. This greatly reduces stress.

2. Delegate- a family is not a one woman show.

3. Make Time For Yourself- If you fall apart you are of no use
to your family

4. Get Support- Gee... I don't know may be you could join
a support group like hmmm.... I don't know ... may be
CAHE. OK I admit that is just a shameless plug for my group.

5. Worry- Give those worries to the Lord let Him handle them.
I once heard a great speaker talk about what she called
"alter burn". That is the phrase she used for when you hand
a problem over to the Lord to handle and then yank it back
and continue to worry about it. Do you trust God? Do you
want to alter burn your Family?

6. Lower Your Expectations- Your not perfect, you never will
be, get over it.

7. Be Flexible- I don't care how much it cost or how much time
you took to plan it... if it don't work ... dump it!
And try some thing different.

8. Teach Your Kids to Work Independently- If your kids are
old enough you should not have to sit none stop and tell them
what to do next in every subject.

9. Vary Your Activities- If your simply in a rut then change
things up, do something different.

10. Limit Your Activities- Many families have something
or multiple things to go to each and every day. If you
are that family and your burnt out.....well no wonder
your stressed.

11. Take A Day Off- Your a home schooler!
You control the schedule!


12. Remember Why You Started Home Schooling-
I found this quote that sums this up for me. "You have
to have been on fire at one time in order to burn out!"
~Holly Richardson

When Bran was little Cec used to sing a song to him when he was trying to break him from sleeping in our bed. It was a remake of Ten Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed. Cec would say, " Daddy called the Dr. and the Dr. said NO More Brandons in Momma's bed!"





Yes, we are those parents that forever have their children in their bed. Last night as things were winding down I laid in bed with a book. Cec was trying to doze off. Sure enough here came little Em with a book. She crawled up the middle of the bed and took up her normal space between us. She opened her book up and took up "reading" it. Dicovering that he was the only family member not in our room, Bran drags in his blankets and pillows to take up his post on the floor at the foot of the bed. (He has long since outgrown fitting in the bed with us.)



When my eyes got heavy I flipped off the bedside lamp and laid my book on the table. Em smiled up at me and laid her book down too. I thought to myself may be there is a bit of me in there after all. I had often wondered if she wasn't her Dad through and through. She snuggled in closer to my side and almost the very second I wrapped my arms around her dropped right off to sleep. As I laid there listening to my family's breathing take on the regular pattern of sleep I sent up a prayer of thanks for my many blessings.



Then I shoved my husband's dog off my back, kicked my dog off my legs, removed my daughters elbow from my ear and attempted to stake my self firmly to the mattress to insure I could keep my portion of the bed. Sometime during the night while stumbling to the rest room I'm almost sure I stepped on Bran's head. . .



Ahhhh... these are those precious moments you hope to always remember...