Dear Diary...

If anyone ever has the opportunity to look at my diaries when I die, they will be dreadfully disappointed, I think. You see, I write for a few days, and then, nothing.  Not even a sigh.  Then, *BAM* another entry, 8 months later.  Yes, that's me.  I guess it's kinda like getting into a Nicholas Sparks novel, and then it just stops at Chapter 4, only to begin again as one of the lovers is drifting away out to sea...  Okay, maybe a little dramatic.  I warned you in the first post.  You're the one who keeps reading.

Our first couple months of schooling at home has really been a blessing.  I'm learning more about my daughter... and myself.  God has taught me so many things through it all, hopefully some of which I'll share one day.  But for now, a little about what we've been learning on the school front.

 Learned about Christopher Columbus... Why not make ships and have a race?

Beading a "What Would Jesus Do?" necklace.  Getting ready to start learning about the names of Jesus.

Making wigwams for our Native American studies

Sacajawea Days - Little Miss Thing with some friends.  This was perfect for what we were studying during September.

Right before a WASP Bite.  Seriously???  A Bite?

Move over Justin Bieber!

A little Indian jig

Last month we went to the Pumpkin Patch.  We had a blast, and it wasn't too terribly cold.  For anyone who asks about socialization, you can see we've got that covered.  Enjoy the pics!  Hope to post again before next year.

Love this!

Loved what we read this morning for devotions from our kids Bible so much, I had to hurry and share.

Isaiah 53: 4-6 NIrV
"He suffered the things we should have suffered.
He took on himself the pain that should have been ours.
But we thought God was punishing him.
We thought God was wounding him and making him suffer.
But the servant was pierced because we had sinned.
He was crushed because we had done what was evil.
He was punished to make us whole again.
His wounds have healed us."

Thanks you, Jesus!

Our First Week... A Week Late!

I was going to start school right after Labor Day, but Little Miss Thang was so excited, we decided to start a week early.  Sooo... Last Monday was her first day of school.  Here are some pictures!

 We just had to take some Back To School pics!  Instead of getting a whole new wardrobe for school, I took her out, and she picked out just one of her choice.  Love Gymboree!

 Here she is at her "new" desk!  (Thanks, Mary P!)  This is our little SchoolHaus Nook.

This was such a fun treat for us!  In fact, I'm still trying to live up to this one from the first day of school.  To kick off our American History portion of our unit, we got to make Red, White, & Blue Parfaits.  Yummm-o!

And to finish up the day, what better way to do that than reading in one's jammies?  It really was a fantastic start to a new Adventure!

Think Charlie Brown, "Wah wah wah wa wah wah wahhh."

So, you may want to skip this post if you have absolutely no interest in homeschooling.  I, in no way, am saying it's the only way.  In fact, the only place your children need to be is right where God wants them.  If He wants them at Home, great.  If Public's the ticket, just fine.  And, if He's got them in Private, wonderful.  There's no better place than in His hands.

For those of you who are still reading, here's what I'm using for our SchoolHaus this year.  I'm the kind of girl that has to look at every single font before I print out a document.  Searching for curriculum for my little 2nd Grader could have been a nightmare since that's my personality.  Thankfully, I prayed first, so I must say the search was much easier... But, still a lot of work!

This year we're taking an Adventure in more than one way.  For our core curriculum, we're using Adventures in My Father's World.  Love it because it's all laid out for us and everything is intertwined.  We'll be learning about the names of Jesus and Christians in U.S. History.  If we're learning about Jesus, The Bread of Life, we'll be making bread in Science.  Really love it because it doesn't really use textbooks per se, but lots of Classics!  I think I'm going to learn a lot this year, too.  Also, proceeds go to Bible translation, so I think it's a worthy place to spend my cold, hard ca$h.  Oh, and my preschooler, Tuff Guy, gets to do some of this with us, too!  Fun for the whole fam. :)

We're going to use Singapore Math this year.  Really, because I think it just fits Little Miss Thang's personality.  We. Shall. See.  I really thought about MathUSee which I continue to hear raves about, but we're not, and that's that. I may actually supplement with that, but what can I say?  I guess I'm an old-fashioned girl!

I'm really excited about this one - All About Spelling!  Little Miss Thang has struggled in Spelling since she hasn't had a great start with Phonics.  I've read some great things about this one, and so far we both really enjoy it!  It uses a multi-sensory approach to spelling.  I keep warning the Hubs that I'm going to have him do it with her!  We're blazing through Level 1, so we should be able to get through Level 2 by the end of the year.

We are really loving this one for Grammar - First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Thanks, Jessica M.!). We get time snuggling while my lil' second grader learns about nouns, verbs, pronouns, poem memorization, story narration, and so much more!  This has been really fun.  We started this summer, so she could get to Level 2 by 2nd grade, and she's already learned so much!  It has a very classical feel, which, again, I love.  We are supplementing with worksheets from Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation, too.

Thanks to a teacher friend turned homeschool mom (Thanks, Cheryl!), we are using Daily 6-Trait Writing to sharpen up on our Writing Skills.  This is the area that Little Miss Thang struggles with, so I think it's going to really help.  We haven't started this one yet, but I'm thinking I'm going to have a little writer on my hands by the end of the year.

Oh, boy!  I have a little, budding artist!  I Can Do All Things came with our My Father's World package.  To be honest, I wasn't so sure, but by the end of the day, Little Miss Thang is begging to do art.  This one is going to be fun for her and my Tuff Guy, too.

So, that's that.  Now you have it.  This is why I won't be answering my phone before Noon.

In a bit of a School Daze.

So, this was our first week of School.  (Notice, I'm still having a hard time saying the *homeschool* word!)  We definitely had our ups and downs.  Day 1.  Great, but a little long.  Day 2.  Perfect.  We were done by lunch.  Day 3.  Ugh.  Need I say more?  Day 4.  A little better.  And, Day 5.  A Great Ending to an Adventurous week.  I went to bed at 8:30 p.m.  I don't remember the last time I went to bed that early.  Seriously?!

Yep, I'm one of Those!

Can't believe I've decided to, errr, uhhh, (clear throat), umm.... homeschool.  There.  I said it.  It's out there in cyberspace for everyone to know.  And, I'm blogging about it.

I've loved reading blogs over the years, and now I've decided to FINALLY write one for myself.  I'm one of those people who go for the gusto for a few months weeks days hours, and then I'm onto something else.  Let's see if I can keep up with this for a bit.  Maybe more than this introduction post.

So, back to my big *announcement*.  I've always been the one to say, homeschooling's great for those who can do it.  As for me, NEVER, not in a MILLION years, no way, no how... Seriously!  Really, as you can see, I never felt very strongly about it.  (Yeah, right.)  There would never be any way I was going to do that with my family.

Little Miss Thang, my oldest, sweet spitfire of a girl is seven years old.  Our personalities don't always click; I've always said it's just because she's smarter than me.  When she was little, we used to describe her as the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead... without the curl.  "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was Horrid."  Okay, so she's not a horrid child, but she is definitely my VERY strong personality.  I couldn't wait for the day that I would get to send her off to school and have six solid hours to myself (Ha!).

We sent her to the cutest, little public school out in the country for Kindergarten and First Grade, and I'd do it all over again - because I know that's where God placed us at the time.  She had two of the most amazing teachers.  Little Miss Thang met some sweet, sweet school friends.  There were so many wonderful Christians at that school!  The drive had something to be desired, but luckily we even had someone to share that with.  For the most part, she couldn't have been at a better school.  As much as we loved it, though, there was something not quite right for us.  The girl in me that said I would never, ever, ever, ever HOMESCHOOL my kids, slowly started to change.  I began to feel a sense of dread when I sent her off for the loooooong day.  I missed my little girl.  I wanted her home with me.  I wanted to teach her about what I thought was important, but we just didn't have enough time in the day.

I started praying about the possibility of maybe keeping her home this year for Second Grade, and I asked God to send me a big, flashing NEON sign.  He didn't.  What He did do, however, was open my heart to something that I was completely closed off to at one time.  Now, we're diving in head first.  I'm not saying that I'm going to be a lifer.  I'm not even saying that I'm going to make it through the year (hopefully, though!), but we're giving it a go.  This will definitely be an Adventure (more on that later!), to say the least.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for me, my sweet Girl, and the rest of our family this year!  Hope you enjoy the ride with us.