Sep
14
Posted by Coral on
September 14, 2008
After 2 years of not working from home, my Love is returning. Of our almost 9 years of marriage, only about 3 of those years he’s worked outside the home. I was used to having him around. Then 2 years ago he said that he needed to get an office here in town, I was very sad and shed quite a few tears. However after those 2 years, when he said he was returning home, I didn’t know what it would be like adjusting to having him here all the time again.
Well, last week was his first week working from home again, and I have already adjusted just fine 
. I forgot how nice it is to have him here! To be able to walk into his office just to say “I love you”, a kiss here a kiss there, him not missing anything that the kids do or say, being able to leave the baby here napping if I have to run and do something; these are just a few of the reasons it is awesome to have him back.
I know that it is a big adjustment for him also. He has been used to having the comraderie of other men around, and built friendships that he will miss. I pray we are making the transition as joyful for him as it is for us.
We are all excited about now being able to take more and longer trips in the RV. We have a trip planned the end of this month to the Grand Canyon. We will be gone for a week this time, visiting other places along the way. Jeff looks forward to being a bigger part of the homeschool experience. For this trip we will be taking a break from our normal school work and attempting our very first lapbook, the topic the “Grand Canyon” of course. With a little help from In the Hands Of a Child I hope it will be a great success. I’ll write more on lapbooking later.
Anyway in the words of my darling P “It’s going to be a new life for us now that Daddy is home.” (with excitement in her voice 
). I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Sep
09
Posted by Coral on
September 9, 2008
My son went almost a whole day dressed like this:
The shoes are at least two sizes too big, but they have a choo choo(Thomas) on them, so they quickly became His favorite. He strutted around thinking he was very cool. At least the hat kept him warm 
.
Sep
08
Posted by Coral on
September 8, 2008
Homeschooling is quite the adventure. I thought I was going to make changes in our History/Geography from Sonlight. Turns out changes happened else where. I love Sonlight Cores, & Read -Alouds. My prior idea of stretching it out over two years did not fly with my girls. R (the one I was worried about it being to much for her to handle) would ask, “Can we please do the other page?” After trying to shorten things at least 4 times, and being met with the same response, we went back to the regular schedule. I believe we just needed to get into the groove. It has been smooth sailing since.
I ended up making the changes needed in Language Arts, however. SL Language Arts was too much work and did not suit the girls, very well. P’s reading level is way above the Readers 1 for SL LA 1. She was bored with the reading assignments, but the LA assignment were still at her level. I switched her to the Readers 2 (which we already had), and we still use some of the SL LA 1; such as the spelling lists, Explode the Code, and every once in awhile some of the activities and games. However for P’s LA we have switched to “English For the Thoughtful Child”. For R we have switched to “Phonics Pathways” with a little copy work added on, . Both of these are working great! I love their simplicity.
With ETC I love it’s artistic creative feel.The works of art to observe and discuss, the poems to memorize, the stories to narrate are all right up my ally. P catches on pretty quickly and loves to think through thing, so this book is great for her (I have a feeling it might not work for R, we shall see
). The lessons are different lengths so sometimes a lesson take 1 day sometimes 4 days. It also depend on P’s understanding of the concepts,to determine how long we take. If you want or need a script this is not for you. You need to know or recall your early LA skills (no teachers manual). I did skip the lesson on the new moon, because I didn’t know the answers and couldn’t find them 
. Anyway I have been able to make this one really work for us. It brings in more of the Charlotte Mason methods I have been so interested in.
As I have said before, R has been begging to learn to read, just like Sister. SL LA K was good, but too slow for her liking. So I purchased PP. We skipped the Letter sounds; since she knew these; and started with the consonant short vowel blends such as- Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu. We are finished with these and are now on the short 3 letter word as in -Bad, Bed… It is amazing how the consonant short vowel blends help her to easily and quickly identify these words. The program is super easy (just a few minute a day). I love it! P reads very well. However I believe this program would have made it much easier and less confusing, than all my trial and error, ways of trying to teach her.
I’ll let you know if I change anything else . All this can be frustrating, but part of it is fun because it means I am learning more about my girls and how they learn best. I do realize that I need to put more prayer into my curriculum decisions from now on. He knows better than I do, what they need. If I can hand this over to Him I will fare much better in coming years.
