A camping we will go

Today is camping day. Our church is attending a local Christian camp site this week. All packed awaiting for time to leave. Last night I went down to see how to get to the camp with a group from church. They needed to take supplies ahead and get things set up today before the rest of us arrive. As in me hauling 11 kids and 2 adults arrive for the fun and adventures that await us.

We are going to be up to our ears in activities, food, prayer, food, activities, and food. Tonight is a pool party for an hour. Never heard of only an hour in a pool, but time is limited with all the things they have scheduled for the kids.

First time camping like this for myself and my kids. They are so excited; the kids have been packed for a full day and its killing them. They want to go NOW. I'm starting to get excited too, don't tell them they'll never leave me alone if they knew. When we get back, I'll posts some pics of things we did.

Getting ready for School

Last night I sat down to see exactly what we needed for school this year. Science and some kind a extra curricular subject he wants to do for the oldest. As a whole, we are looking into history to help with my unit studies I have purchased.

The science we are using for all kids is from Apologia. Exploring create with Botany (younger two) and Physical Science (older one). My kids love these books. Lots of hands on experiments for the boys to play with.

History I'm doing unit studies on the ancients from Mr. Donn's website but also will get The Story of the World Vol. 2 to supplement what we are doing and fill in the gaps between the ancient civilizations we will move onto. It comes with a book on the subject and an activity book to do crafts/project to tie in what they learned.

I'm thinking this will come under the $150 I set back for these few books. Great thing about most of these books is I can use them for the younger two when the time comes. Then save up this fall semester to purchase the Driver Ed in a Box. Little pricey for my tastes at $229, but it has tests and other info I may know but forget to teach my kid. And again, the other two will get to use it when their time comes. Breaks down to $76 per kid this way. Next up on my to-do list.......... scheduling. *runs away screaming*

Week in review

Work, omgoodness...I forgot about how hard and tired I'd be working. Didn't help that my 4 hr days turned into 8 hrs day. Good for the budget, bad for my body. I'll get used to it though. No worries. The job maybe temporary, we won't know until after the first of next month. That's fine because another job is in the wing waiting for me, I think. Working at a local coffee shop. Be still my heart.

As I'm laying in bed at night thinking of the hundred things I need to accomplish this week. It dawns on me, I have less than a month left til school starts. There are some books I need to order, assignments that need to be scheduled for the kids, daily schedules made up, and supplies organized/bought. Lots of things still left to do. Where did my summer vacation go?

In hind sight, we have had a really great summer so far. No, we didn't get to swim as much as the kids wanted. Nor did we get to go camping like we had planned. But we still had fun. Water balloon wars in the back yard, walks in the park, over nights with friends and their favorite uncle, getting to stay up as late as they wanted one night a week, and more.

With fun, time speeds by. I'm guessing we've had lots of fun this summer.

Got a job!!

Money is super tight here. Just like everybody else. Today, after a long uphill battle, I was offered a job. Part-time at 20 hrs a week. My old employer called me out of the blue. Start tomorrow morning. I'm excited and can't wait to pay off some of our debt at the same time.

This job maybe temporary or permanent. Depends on several factors on both sides (my and theirs). Either way, we'll be able to pay off some things and save up for others. Have some relief from worrying so much. I can't wait.

A month til school starts?!?!

This morning at church, I was talking with Mrs. F. She had been DS1's fourth grade teacher. We were in pain realizing that school starts for us in a month. Hers starts sooner. They have a teacher's meeting on the 8th and public school starts the 13th. Meetings to tell her what she has to do in the year. All the information she has to sweeze into her day wheither the kids understand it or not. I commented that one day the schools will be going year long instead of 180 days. Mrs F. agreed and said she was glad that she will be retired by that time.

The 13th?!?!? I couldn't believe it. Still can't believe it as I write this. Two years, ago public school started the last full week of August, it did when I was in school too. Yet it seems to be creeping earlier and earlier into the summer. What happened to the two full months off from school? The two months we as kids played outside (yes outside, not in front of the tv or computer) from the time the sun came up til it was dark. Those summers your parents had to call you in for bath and bed. You were so tired you crashed and somehow had the energy to started it all over again the next day. The good ole days. The days where you were expected to be a kid. To play.

Yet, nagging in the back of my head, a little voice is telling me that I have a month to go too. Aug. 18th is when I plan on starting our school year. Do I have my schedule written down? Do I have all the books/curriculum we need? Do we have enough school supplies? Almost, no, and yes. Looks to me I need to have a back to school meeting with myself. Get things lined out. Plan some fun some my kids can still be kids even when we are in the middle of school. Yeah. That's the ticket. Fun while we learn. Oh yeah, they call it homeschooling. Glad we decided to do that. Let our kids be kids while they learn to be adults and upstanding citizens, what a concept.

Math Breakthrough

This morning, DS3 came running to me with my Brain Age 2 game. He was competting with DH on some math training, see who could get the highest score, etc. DS was so excited, said: "Mom, look at my score on the math part. I didn't have to think about the numbers, they just popped into my head!" I had to smile, told him that is how you are suppose to do math. All your addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are to pop in your head. The light came on in his eyes. He got it!!! DS ran to tell his dad, his brothers, and I think the dog. He was so proud of himself.

He and I have worked for the last two years on his math. Struggled more like it. It was his weak subject, he just couldn't get multiplication. The kid struggled and struggled with it. No matter what we tried it just didn't pop in his head. Even after all the flash cards, worksheets, games, and whatnot we tried...he just didn't get it. Today he did. All from a different type of game. Competition with his dad. How cool is that?? That little Nintendo DS game was $20 some dollars I spent for me to play with. Instead of being some little game dh an I played, it helped my son learn his mathematics. Priceless.

Driver's Ed

We are looking towards teaching our 15 yr old this school year. (He'll be 16 in March.) Unfortunately, our state (Indiana) doesn't acknowledge any homeschool type driver's ed curriculum. We have to either take a class at a local school, private driving company that is approved by the state, or teach him ourselves.

If we did go with the private course we'd have to think about these things...

• Traditional courses give an average of 30 hours classroom and 6 hours actual driving experience.
• Child is 15 yrs old with learners permit. Will get driver's license at the age of 16 yrs and 1 month.
  
• You attend at the school’s schedule, not yours.
• After completion of a traditional course, the parent is still responsible for preparing the teen to drive collision-free.

How can a kid learn everything they can in a 36 hrs of class that lasts only 3 weeks?

Considering that we do not have the money to pay a school ($350 when I was last quoted in May) and we do not want our son back in the public school setting, we are left with one option. Teach him ourselves.

We are going to use, more than likely, Driver's Ed in a Box enough though its not an approved curriculum (like they can stop me from using it, they'll just require our son to take the written & driving tests). Its a curriculum to teach the child AND the parents. Cost is a bit high, $229. Yet we have 3 kids and we can use it for them also when the time comes, comes down to $76.33 per kid. Added bonuses with teaching our son ourselves... (Information copied from Driver's Ed in a Box Indiana area.)

• Our son applies for permit at 16 and is allowed by the state to get their license at 16 and 6 months. This slight delay in licensing can make a big difference in maturity (less wrecks).
• The first section of the classroom gives the teens the information required to pass the written test.
• The Videos, Audio CDs, Parent Companion and Classroom sections all work seamlessly together. These tools give both parent and teen the goals and communication skills for each lesson to be a pleasurable experience.
• At the end of each phase of training you move on to the next phase when both parent and teen agree they are ready.
  The phases are:
• Parking Lot
• Neighborhood
• Light Traffic
• Freeway
• Rural
• Heavy Traffic
• You do all this on your own schedule during the permit period.
• The result is both Teen and Parent are comfortable and confident in the teens driving ability.

I might be a tad bit weird, but I'm looking forward to teaching my son to drive. Especially after he gets his driver's license. He can go to the store to get those things I need to pick up like milk, bread, butter....

What a deal!! Motivated Mom's Chore Planner is 1/2 off...

The 2008 Motivated Moms planners have now been marked down to $4 since there's only half a year left on them. Now is the time to buy if you weren't sure if you wanted to try it out at $8 but will try it for $4!

I have to say that I really love mine. By the second day I realized I had done more cleaning/organizing in my home than I usually did in a week (it didn't seem like I had worked all that hard). Yet I had more to show for all I had done. My fridge is clean!! (Major ordeal here) It took two weeks with a little reminder of just clean the top shelf today or the door shelves, etc. Amazing!! Deann, the owner of Motivated Mom's Planner, is a friend of mine and former homeschooling mom. She's put a lot of thought and work into her planners because she knows what we need to get done with so little time to do it. Give it a try, then let me know here how you liked them. I'll pass them onto Deann.