That’s how we spent our day. It was lovely. Happy birthday, Anna!

But Tigger is also a really social child. She loves being with other kids. And she loves learning from other people. So I like to sign her up for things that get organized on topics that interest her. Back in May/June she did a science class. It was loosely based on the Grade 9 curriculum and advertised as for 12-15 year olds. I knew the mom that organized it and talked to her about it. She wasn’t sure what the teacher would think but thought Tigger was probably at that level (from previous interaction) and said that if everyone who signed up was at the top end of the age range maybe not but we’d see who else was interested. In the end it was pretty hard to get the minimum number together and there was an 11 year old also interested and Tigger did it. She was fine. I had to find alternative readings a couple of times or go through the reading with her but she grasped the concepts well and did great in this lab based class.

At the end of that class the teacher had said that there was another class he planned to offer in the fall if the kids were interested — cell biology with lots of microscope work (Grade 9 level again). Even though Tigger and this other kid were younger than his usual target age range he made a point of saying to me and the other mom that they were both easily capable of doing that class and he’d welcome them. So this fall, I contacted him and then took it upon myself to organize some people.

Of course it is easier to get enough kids in September than in May So I had more than enough and did it on a first-come first-served kind of basis. I sent an e-mail to those that were in and the teacher (so he could take over) and listed what I knew about the participants at the end. Some I didn’t know ages and those I did seemed to be several 12 year olds and Tigger. One 14 year old boy then told his mom that he didn’t want to do a class for 10 - 12 year olds. AAACK!

I dealt with it all but I felt personally really awful. Here I am trying to get an activity at a good level for Tigger and because she is younger it gives the impression to others that the class isn’t really Grade 9 level as advertised. The teacher by then had more information about some of the kids and we confirmed with this kid’s mom that there were older kids in the group and that the level was right for him and that he wasn’t going to dumb it down for younger kids. He’s back in. Thank goodness.

But I ended up feeling like you can’t win. The age to level culture runs so deep that even homeschooled kids (and this kid is unschooled so I don’t think he does a lot of workbooks with levels printed on them either) immediately think that younger kids must be doing lower level work. Or maybe that it would be “normal” for a class to have kids all about the same age rather than having kids from 11 to 16 (as this class will). I’m sure he didn’t mean anything bad by it but it does seem to be an indication of how deep those assumptions go.

Which gets me back to my complaint that we, as a society, need a better understanding of statistics and probability. Because the variation in ability (all kinds of abilities) around the mean is significant for most things. Somehow we have a society that thinks “average” is where everyone should be and that both “below average” and “above average” are somehow “abnormal” in a way that needs to be corrected or reined in or something. This starts to happen from when we are measuring our babies’ progress in terms of “developmental milestones”. I have even met moms who misunderstand those growth charts thinking that if their kids in the 15th (or 85th) percentile there is a problem with their growth. Somewhere along the line we’ve lost the distinction between characteristics of a population and characteristics of an individual  member of that population. And it causes real problems.

My kid is well within the normal range of ability for a kid her age. But she’s 11 and capable of Grade 9 science. Her understanding of history and history of art is way beyond what anyone would expect of an 11 year old. But she still plays imaginative games with Playmobil toys and dolls and other “normal” 11 year old stuff. That’s probably normal too. Somehow we need to be able to recognize all of our normal kids, in all their variation, and help them learn. I would hope that classes with kids ranging in age from 11 to 16 were actually more common.

Educational Thought in the Eighteenth Century.––If the end of the eighteenth and the end of the nineteenth centuries have one feature in common more than another, it is, that in both education comes to the front as among the chief ends of man. The eighteenth-century people had the best of it. They had clear oracles in their Locke and their Rousseau. They knew what they wanted to do, and they did it with charming enthusiasm. The period teems with memoirs; and it is very pleasant to read about the philosophically and consistently brought up children of the more thoughtful families. They had convictions, and they had the courage of their convictions. We are less happy. A few decades ago we too were in a furore of joyous excitement about education. Educational ‘movements,’ schools, colleges, lectures, higher education for women, ‘public’ day schools for girls, examination tests which should give assurance on every point, were multiplied all over the country and all over the world. It was a forward movement which has brought us incalculable gains; and not the least of these gains is the fact that today we are dissatisfied and depressed, and inclined to wonder whether we are not on the wrong tack. If educational work of the best kind had not been going on amongst us for the last two or three decades, we should not have arrived at this ‘divine discontent.’ All the same, it is pretty evident that the time has come when we must change our front. Now, elementary schools, now, girls’ high schools, now, public schools, now, women’s colleges, are pronounced to be, on the whole, ‘a failure.’ They do a great deal, it is said, but is what they do worth doing? Is it, in fact, education? The bolder sceptics go so far as to attack our two ancient universities; but they, very likely, will weather the storm because of the very inertness, the ‘masterly inactivity,’ let us call it, which their opponents abuse; the universities do a great deal of ‘letting-alone.’

We, of course, begin our school day with dressing, bed making, chores, and breakfast.  Then it’s off to the school room at 8:30 sharp!       We begin with the 3 pledges:  Pledge to the American Flag, Pledge to the Christian Flag, and Pledge to the Bible.  Then a song…and devotions.  We read 1 question and answer from The Bible Has The Answer and also 1 devotion from Little Visits with God.  We also read the reference from the latter book in the King James Bible.

Pheasant Ridge Academy’s 2008-2009 Class Photos.

My 13 year old 8th grader:

My 12 year old 7th grader:

My 10 year old 4th grader:

My 7 year old 2nd grader:

My 4 year old Kindergardener:

And they’re off!  

DD13 working on her paces:

DD13 at the scoring station:

DS12 working his paces:

DS12 at the scoring station:

DD10 working her paces:

DD10 at the scoring station:

DD10 showing her science project (Types of Matter):

*note to hubby - dear, I don’t know WHERE she found that rusty metal, but it worked fine!     (hubby is a geothermal driller, you can usually find small pieces of pipe every now and again around here…)

DS7 working his paces:

DS7 on his 30 minute, 10:00 am break:

DS4 working his paces:

DS4 showing ’sad book’.  This depicts how books feel when used improperly.

D4 showing ‘happy book’.  This depicts how books feel when treated responsibly.

Volume 1 of the 4 volume set of my Kindergarden manuals:

DS4 being, well four!   He is allotted 1 hour of school per day, today we did our paces, story, and song in about 40 minutes.

DD10 showing her goal card. 

Close up of DS12’s goal card.  Shows that he completed 4 of 6 subjects (so far at the time of photo) and his goals for the next day beneath.  This system is great!  We begin the privilege levels next week, and I’ll explain those in detail at that time

The 4 older children’s progress charts.  These show the kids at a glance if they are ‘on track’, ‘ahead’, or getting a bit ‘behind’ in their paces overview for the year

Here are just a few of our paces.   Some covers, and then a few of the inside:

This shows my ‘teacher side’ of DD13’s cubby.  It holds all of her score keys, tests, and paces that are waiting to be used when she finishes her current ones.  Notice I don’t need a bunch of teacher manuals anymore?  whoo hoo!

Pheasant Ridge Academy, in session!

The little boys burning off some wiggling energy in mama’s beloved chair. 

And last, but definitely not least, we close our school time (of course we already had lunch break too) with our current family read aloud:  The Chronicles of Narnia

Ok, so yes, I do designate my children in grade levels….my 3 older children were in the public school system for years, so that is what is ‘normal’ to them.  

Our style may seem quite a bit too ‘traditional’ or school-at-home for some, but it works for us!   

What my children say about their paces:
DD13:  “I love them!”
DS12:  “They are really interesting”
DD10:  “Well, I don’t like school, but if I have to do it, then I like these best”
DS7:     “I like them way better than those awful green books”
DS4:     “Are we still doing school in the morning?”

The subjects my children have:
DD13:  Math, Word Building, English, Literature and Creative Writing, Science, Social Studies, and as soon as it arrives:  Introductions to Missions Paces.  She also practices her typing skills, and plays flute.
DS12:  Math, Word Building, English Literature and Creative Writing, Science, Social Studies, and as soon as it arrives:  Introductions to Missions Paces.  He also does typing lessons, and computer science.
DD10: Math, Word Building, English, Literature and Creative Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Bible Reading Paces.  She also does typing lessons, and may begin recorder this fall.
DS7: Math, Word Building, English, Literature and Creative Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Bible Reading Paces. 
DS4:  His K program covers reading readiness, number readiness, co-ordination skills, fine motor skills, singing, following directions, stories, character building, science, and more.

I’ll talk more about the total pace ’system’ at another time.    For now, I pray you all have a great new school year.

Of these books, what is your favorite?

a)Charlotte’s Web

b) Little Women

c) Little House on the Prairie

D) You have never read any of these books.

Here are the results of the last one:

a) 4

b)1

c) 0

People like my blog, obviously.

Dreamer

Formal lessons 10:30 am - 2:30 pm

Bible/Religion

Read from Ch.2 in St. Patrick’s Summer about St. Patrick’s second meeting with the Cecilia and Michael. It seems it’s okay to not understand fully the Blessed Trinity, God knows we don’t understand everything he has told us about himself.

Language Arts

Listened to one half of chapter 2 in Call it Courage and discussed how courageous Mafatu must have been to leave his island.

Went over Greek/Latin root words from Unit Study.

Learning to take notes: took notes by answering: who, what, where, when, why, how to short story they each read about the Lost Roanoke Colony from Mara Pratt’s American History Stories.

Poetry

Read another page of poems in Random House Book of Poetry, one by Christina Rosetti, a favorite author.

Independent Reading

Everyone read more in their independent reading books on Colonial America. DS11 is almost done with A Lion to Guard Us so I found him The Witch of Blackbird Pond to read next.

Social Studies

Read independently about the lost colony. Discussed the lost colony. Took notes on the lost colony for writing a paragraph, tomorrow.

Read more in The Story of Jamestown , where it was mentioned that one of the goals of the people was to investigate the lost colony. We thought that odd, since Roanoke is in North Carolina and Jamestown in Virginia.

Folded three cardstock squares each to decorate and use in Jamestown model.

Science

Read about Bug Hunting in Jim Arnosky’s book Field Trips. Talked about how to find bugs, what to draw, what to say about your drawing, what kind of equipment you need for bug hunting. Everyone gathered their nature journaling things, found bugs, drew and labeled them. dd10 and dd8 drew a live beetle in an observation jar. ds11 drew a dead wasp found on the window ledge in the kitchen.

Handwriting

Everyone did handwriting in their Abeka books.

Math

Both dd’s did Math.

French

Everyone did lesson 1, exercise 2, on the computer.

We played “Pig,” a simple probability game that has become a regular for us. This game provides practice with addition up to sums of 24 along with intuitive experience with probability. (math: computation & probability)

1. In turn, each player is handed four dice. He can choose to roll 1, 2, 3 or all 4 dice. He can roll as many times as he likes.
2. Each time he rolls, he computes the sum of all the dice he rolled. That is his score.
3. If he rolls one “1″ at any point, his turn ends, and he loses all the points he’s scored in that round.
4. If he rolls two “1″s — his turn ends, and he loses all the points he’s scored so far in the whole game.
5. The first player to reach 100 points wins.

Since I’m focusing a bit on adding without counting, I modeled logical ways of adding the numbers on the dice. For example, if you roll 5, 6, 5 & 4 … group the 6 & 4 together and the 2 5’s together. Two 10s is 20.

We had a round when Sarah and I both chose to roll only two dice and rolled two “1″s. (VERY bad luck!) After the game, I asked Sarah and James what they thought were the odds of that happening. Since the chances of rolling a “1″ when you roll one die is 1:6, they thought the odds of rolling 2 “1″s when 2 dice are rolled would be 2:12. I pointed out that 2:12 is the same as 1:6. Since James hasn’t studied fractions yet, I drew a diagram to show him why this was so. Then I asked, “So you think the chances of rolling a “1″ with one die are the same as the odds of rolling two “1″s when you roll 2 dice? They confirmed that this was their prediction. Even though we’ve done the tree diagram thing before, it hasn’t sunk in yet.

So I showed them, using a simple tree diagram, why the odds of rolling two dice and getting two “1″s are actually much lower (1:36)

(Poking around online, I just found a link that explains this.

How often do you read my blog?

a) All the time

b) Sometimes

c) You just found my blog

I am going to do a  poll often. the results of this one will be posted on the next poll.

Dreamer

Structure left over from a festival.

Remnants of a sugar cane mill

98 degree water near the volcano

Roadside conch shells

Local woman carrying bread fruit

The Pitons in the rain

Purveyor of coconuts and mangoes

Up first…Declan finished up Math U See Alpha on Monday..YEPPIE!!!

He started Beta today.. this is the first time we’ve used the DVD for him, and he was so ready for it..

After his first lesson we did some work with Decimal Street ourselves..He already knows place value really well but since it was a review lesson we went full steam.. he loves hands on for sure!

We’re working on The Circle Of Life~ Animal Lifecycles from Hands of a Child in science. ( You have to be a super member to get it for a few more weeks).

Declan’s also really gotten back into his Circuit kit.. he built himself a FM radio the other day!

Oh he and Taejan did nature prints yesterday… it was really neat!

Last night after the little kiddo’s went to bed Declan and I played “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” the board game..to say he loved it would be an understatement ( thanks Colleen again!)

Today Declan and Ziah began Draw Write Now  They both fully enjoyed it! Declan did the copy work while Ziah finished up her normal schoolwork:

then they both did the drawing part..not bad for their first time! I even purchased them each the notebook specifically for this program to make keeping their work neater..should be here in a week or so.

On another topic..I have Noah’s History all planned out! I am so pleased to have that off my “must do” list. Now to just flip through his Teaching Textbooks Algebra,LLATL American Lit and set up his Switched on Schoolhouse and we’re good to go!

Here’s a simple craft we made up yesterday to decorate the windows.

Needed:

• Coffee filters (can use white paper towels, tissue paper or another absorbant paper)
• Washable markers in fall colors (we used red, yellow, orange and brown)
• A spray bottle of water or a medicine dropper and bowl of water

1.  Either lay out lots of newspaper or do this outside, as it can get messy.

2.  Cut the coffee filters into leaf shapes.  You can either do this freehand or trace leaves.  I stacked several at a time and cut some basic leaf shapes but Victoria chose to trace maple leaves.  I must admit I prefer hers!  Anna and Jack also just cut freeform leaf shapes.  For younger kids, it’s nice to just cut a stack for them unless they like to cut.

3.   Have the kids color the leaves.  They can do patterns or whatever they like.  The more color, the better.

4.  Once the leaves are mostly colored, show them how to spray the leaves with the water or have them squeeze drops of water onto the leaves.  Watch the colors run and mix.  You’ll get different results from dropping and spraying.  Both are pretty.  You may want to have a paper towel or rag to blot puddles (after blotting, press it on any white areas to leave new color).  Make sure the leaf gets completely saturated, even the parts that are still white.  This helps the colors run all over and also keeps the texture uniform and gets out the pleats.

5.  Allow to dry and tape to the window.  These will be colored on both sides and are bright and translucent looking (more so if you don’t forget to use a flash ).

Tips:  You can also just drop colored water onto the leaves for another version.  Also, once you’ve done a few of these your newspaper is likely to be pretty darkly colored under the leaves.  We made a few by just spritzing them with water and pressing them into the stained newspaper.  It was a lighter, pretty effect.  The leaf on the right on the top picture was done this way.  You can also press a plain wet one over a newly sprayed one and make a light copy.

And here’s what the baby did while the big kids made leaves…

Used homemade playdough and a chopstick!  :)  I switched it up every few minutes and made it into balls, snakes, bowls, etc. to keep him interested.

Apparently, both kids told him they were not hungry, so he didn’t cook dinner.  Then, right before bedtime, suddenly Carbon is starving.  I think this is totally predictable - that’s why I make people eat dinner when I put it on the table whether or not they feel hungry.  But DH just said “No” to food and let Carbon cry and have a “fit” and sent him to bed.  So this morning the first thing Carbon told me was that “Daddy didn’t feed me at all and I was soooo hungry without you Mommy!”

But then he still hasn’t eaten all of his oatmeal I made him, so he can’t be that hungry.

The job still seems to be a go. I talked to the people at our CCB (Community Centered Board - the organization that distributes the federal and state funds earmarked for the support of people with developmental disabilities), and they said that M is too young for their regular job support program, and we couldn’t use any of their funds to “pay” M for his work.

 This wasn’t surprising to me, the CCB really isn’t much support at all… that’s why I set this program up independent of them! I only checked into it because the owner of the restaurant M will be working at wanted to go through the regular job support program (so M could be paid by the CCB). I have a meeting with  our support coordinators (from the CCB) tomorrow and will find out the bottom line then. After that, I’ll call the owner and make sure he’s still willing to hire M, given that it won’t be part of the county’s established job support program.

Anyway… things still look good for M starting his job soon. We just need to tie up all the loose ends first.

It feels like I’m rambling… hopefully that made sense. I woke up this morning with a cold and my head feels fuzzy… time for some vitamin C, I suppose.

In terms of my OTHER wild man, Tucker, things are much simpler…

I’m working with him 3-5 days a week, and he’s making pretty steady progress… I can now work with him in the pasture, instead of having to lock him up in the small pen to get anything done. It’s pretty easy to get the halter on and off, to brush him, and touch him all over (except his legs). I’m still working on him accepting touch on his legs, once he does that I’ll work on picking up his legs and cleaning his hooves. Hopefully we’ll reach that point soon so he can get his hooves trimmed.

We’re also working on leading, which is slow going. He’ll follow along with me for awhile, and then suddenly get spooked by something, and take off. Chuck (donkey trainer) told me to tie Tucker up at our tie up post, and just leave him for an hour or so… that that would help him learn that pulling on the lead rope doesn’t work. (Unfortunately… the message of that whole lesson is just an illusion. Pulling on the lead rope, when it’s attached to the tie up post, doesn’t work…. but if he pulls hard when I’m on the other end of the lead rope, there is no way I can hold him.)

Anyway, I followed Chuck’s suggestion and tied Tucker to the post. It turned out to be an excellent lesson for me into the donkey thought process.

At first Tucker just pulled a little at the rope, testing to see if he could pull free… Next he put some real muscle into it, putting his head down and digging in his hooves while pulling backwards. There was never any panic, he just seemed to be moving from one idea to the next… He pretty quickly figured out that that pulling wouldn’t work. Next he tried unwrapping the rope… trying to walk around the pole to loosen the rope. Needless to say, that didn’t work either, and he ended up VERY close to the pole and had to walk backwards to “unwrap” himself.

Then he just stood there… I thought he’d resigned himself to standing there until I untied him. But no… he was just thinking. After standing there for several minutes (my donkeys seem to be very slow… but deep… thinkers), he walked back around the pole to the knot and started trying to untie it with his teeth! He got the end free (thankfully I tied him very securely), and spent the next 10-15 minutes pulling on the end, and working at the knot, trying to get it loose. I’ve been told that donkeys are smart, but I was pretty amazed that he’d figure out to pull on the end of the rope.

Eventually I rescued him, untying the lead rope then unhooking it from his halter. Surprisingly he didn’t dart away, but just stood there for awhile before slowly walking away.

Here are some pictures…

Tucker, tied to the post (he’s not really tied to the post as tightly as it looks, if he backs up a little he has about 2′ of rope).

~

Working on the knot…

Pulling at the end of the rope (I couldn’t get in close for this one, he’d stop pulling when I got close to him.)

~

Taking a face scratching break…

~

“Would you please come let me go?!”

I love working with Tucker, in a funny way it reminds me a little of martial arts… I LOVED martial arts when I studied it, it was the only sport I’ve loved enough to stick with for an extended period of time. I think the reason I liked it so much is because it’s such a combination of mental and physical skills. Working with Tucker is like that… I have to concentrate when I work with him, paying very close attention to what he’s telling me (with his body language). Even something as subtle as him turning his head away, or tightening his leg muscles, requires me to adapt my behavior in some way. But working with him is also very physical… quickly backing (jumping) out of the way when he swings around in a mini-panic over something, holding onto the lead rope when he starts darting away, keeping up with him when he takes off up the hill. I’m starting to trust him not to kick me (unless I do something he REALLY doesn’t like) but he could still hurt me accidentally. He’s about 600 lbs of panic sometimes, and I don’t want to get in the way of that! 

Oh gosh, I think I’m rambling again…

So anyway Lynn, there you have it… things are still going well in terms of M’s job and Tucker…thanks for asking.

Fritz and Adrian were born in Virginia. Fritz’s birth certificate application was filled out by me and Adrian’s was filled out by one of my midwives. Both of their birth certificates were incorrect when we received them.

Fritz’s said he was born in the county where we live now, but he was born in a city. It’s an honest mistake I suppose. The city where he was born is also the name of a town in the county next door. Adrian’s birth certificate has my middle name spelled wrong. It’s Elaine, but they left off the last e.

So we had to get Fritz’s fixed and we have to get Adrian’s fixed. It’s a very easy process actually. When you call the vital records office there is an option to get a recorded message telling how to get errors like that fixed. Makes me wonder how often they do get things wrong that they have that message on there and so easy to get to.

Adventures in Recent Past and Future:

We took Liam back to college on Sunday.
We may get a new van. New indeed! It has 111K on it, but is in good shape and comes with a warranty.
Hey, how many rural families of nine do you know that have gotten by for 10 years with one vehicle. It can present its challenges! We will be happy to have a second mode of transportation if only for those moments when our one car is in the shop.

Where Everyone Is:

Aidan is asleep. Sean, having finished his homework, is going to sleep. Kieron and Paddy are watching Kevin play Free Bird on Guitar Hero. Clare and Brendan don’t seem to be around.

Recent Music:

Elton John and John Denver (these are the football kid’s picks when he comes home from school at 6 pm)
Mozart’s Requiem.

Recent Books Seen Around the House:

We Went with Magellan, The Enchanted Castle (Kieron); Founding of Christendom (Clare); The Guillotine and the Cross ( Brendan); Cloud of Witnesses by Dorothy Sayers (Sean); The Cloister Walk (me), War and Peace (Liam — he has to read it during the first week of class, for Seminar). Car magazines (Aidan); Arnold Lobel books (Paddy).

Weather:

Hot, but normal hot.

Thoughts:

Too many transitions. Mom overload… ducklings scattering all over the place. Oh, the days when I had a brood of under-tens! it went fast.

What I’m Working On:

Trying to seamlessly integrate various aspects of my life and keep my focus. Yeah, right!

What I am Happy About:

Arrival of fall in this beautiful, beautiful national forest.
A stocked pantry and freezer.
Our dog has successfully lost almost all his extra weight and seems to have regained a new lease on life — he is going on 12 but acts like he’s about 8 or 9 now.

What I’m Not So Happy About:

My lack of follow-through in several “important but not urgent” areas.

Spiritual Focus:

Finished Spiritual Exercises. Turning attention to saying the Rosary well and consistently.

Recent Kitchen Events:

I made nice modified Toll House cookie bars. I use a Toll House recipe but double it, sub a cup of peanut butter for one of the cups of butter, and I use oat flour in place of two of the cups of regular flour. I make oat flour from oats by grinding it in the coffee grinder and it’s not bad.

Formal Academics:

Starting homeschooling in a lowkey way.

Informal Learning:

Some good pretend-play with Aidan and Paddy.

Culture:

Played classical guitar duets with Liam before he left.

Movies:

Perry Mason episodes; Witness for the Prosecution

Wearing:

Black knit pants and a pink thermal shirt. … pajamas, basically!

Creating:

Some order in the schoolroom arrangements.

Grateful for:

The sense of humor this family has, and the way we basically get along.

Some things I want to do this week:

I finished cleaning the garage; I want to get a therapy routine started for Aidan.

A Picture Thought:

Paddy getting sand out of his boots

http://www.crochetmagazine.com/newsletters/talkingcrochet/index.html

This would make a wonderful handicraft project. They say it doesn’t matter what kind of pattern you use or if you crochet or knit. All the scarves go to the special olympics.

I came across this fun site too. It’s called Free Rice and a correct answer on a vocabulary, geography, math or famous painting question adds 20 grains of rice to a bowl to be given to the hungry. You play, hungry people get fed. Fun !

Oh and you can change the levels on the questions to very easy for beginning students. To change the levels just answer one question and then you are prompted at the bottom to see if you would like another level.

http://www.freerice.com/

I am a homeschooling “veteran” of three years.  I have five children, Cole - 8, Luke - 7 (on Saturday!), Brett - 4&1/2, Eliana - 3, and Damara 1.  This year Brett joins our ranks of “official” school, as he in kindergarten age.  I am feeling like I am really beginning to find my homeschool “groove.”  I’ve had to learn that although there is much advice to be had from more seasoned homeschoolers - and I love to glean from them! - I cannot try to copy our home learning experience after anyone else.  We have unique needs, interests and strengths, as individuals and as a family.  I am happily finding what does and doesn’t work for us, and am feeling much more confidence this year than in the first three years.  Our second son was diagnosed with classic autism when he was 2&1/2.  He received much early intervention, and we’ve been happy to watch him as he has developed well and now seems more typical than autistic.  He still has his quirks, but they only endear him to us all the more.  I was “warned” I would be best to not homeschool him, that he wouldn’t do well, particularly socially.  What a joy to report he is quite possibly the most social of all my children! 

I have my days when I wish that big yellow bus would pull up in our driveway and wisk away a couple of children. I have days when I think “Why am I doing this?” I have days when I feel like the worst mother in the world. But we have many days together to enjoy and learn and grow. It is an honour and privilege to be educating my children. More importantly, and something I’m still grasping the weight of, is the responsibility to instruct them in the ways of the Lord, when we sit and rise, come and go.

We live on a beautiful little piece of paradise in rural New Brunswick, Canada. We have our dream property, right on the river, and are enjoying our little house. We hope to do some renovations one day soon, and spread us all out a bit. So far, though, no one is complaining (except maybe Mom when she trips over the same thing for the third time! lol!). We have a golden retriever named Copper, and we planted our first garden this year. It was only a few rows, to get our feet wet, but the children are absolutely delighted to be picking our very own BEANS!

We are eclectic homeschoolers, with a mix of ACE, MUS, Rod & Staff, and whatever else we find that catches our interest. We are business owners, with the ironic job of transporting special needs students to public school. We giggle over that one from time to time. It is a great little business, though, and the Lord has provided for us through it. We are excited that this year my husband will actually be home a bit more, and that makes everyone happier! We love life and enjoy being together.

Fall is fast approaching in this part of Canada - some leaves are already turning. I have been struggling with winter for several years now, so I am really hoping to combat the blues and get us involved in lots of fun projects and crafts to wile away those long, harsh winter days.

We are now officially non-attendees of traditional church. We are in fellowship with other believers in each others homes, and really enjoying the benefits of this method of gathering. It actually fits quite nicely with our homeschooling.

So here is a glimpse into our own little home. I look forward to getting to know several other homeschoolers.