Announcing to the World...

That we are planning to homeschool our son.

This may not seem to be that big of a deal, but it is.

And I've been so worried about other people knowing because I don't want them to treat our son differently.  I think homeschooling has become more mainstream than when we were growing up, but it is still not common.  We have been so thrilled to have found such a large, local, community of support!

E will not legally have to be in education until he turns 6 years (entering 1st grade) which will be 2015-2016 school year.  But, here in Florida, most kids head to preschool for free (aka VPK) for K4.  We had decided to send E to our local Christian school for the VPK portion & then decide from there about further education.

Then we decided to homeschool him for this year.  I am still nervous about him learning to read & all jazz, but I am so excited, too!  We are looking forward to taking trips as often as possible to provide as much hands-on learning as possible, we are thrilled to have both a flexible AND structured environment for him to learn, we are happy to be able to focus on his strengths & his weaknesses, & so many other aspects.

{I feel as though I need to add some disclaimers here... We made a completely informed, individual, decision.  We have thoroughly researched the benefits of homeschooling our child & are more than happy to share those resources with anyone genuinely interested in learning more about it.  We aren't saying this will work forever, but for this year... it's the plan!  There is no person, governmental entity, or program/school that will ever be as invested or motivated for E to learn all that he has the potential to learn than his father & I.  Period.  We are very honored to have family & friend support for this journey.  Also, I plan to share our homeschooling journey here so that others may be encouraged to make- or not make- the decision to educate their child at home; this will never be a condemnation for those that decide to educate their child in a school setting & comments of the such will be deleted.}

I thought I could share what we are currently planning for this first semester/year; I'm sure it will evolve as we move along!

We are using Classical Conversations as a portion of our experience.  If you're not familiar with "CC", you should check it out!  CC uses the classical model of education.  We will meet every Monday morning for 3 hours of guided education by a private tutor.  During this meeting, E will review his memory work (Biblical passages, science, Latin, math, history, art, among others), have a science experiment + art project, & have opportunities to make "presentations" (small speeches) EACH week.  He will have a small class of other children his age & I will be with him the whole time.  After the session is over, many families stay & enjoy the playground along with a picnic lunch.  They also schedule related field trips every month for us to take!

I am looking forward to utilizing Classical Conversations not only for the educational pathway it provides, but for the social support for E & myself.  Even though we feel this is the right decision for our son, it doesn't make it easy to feel isolated & different.  CC will provide friends for E that are also homeschooled & will provide mama friends for me, too.  They have already been so helpful to guide us into curriculum & resources & our school year hasn't even started!!

In addition to the CC portion of our home education, we will be working lots of phonics + reading + writing.  E already knows all of the sounds of the alphabet & can write nearly every letter.  We are beginning BOB books to help him meld all those sounds into letters forming words.  Pretty exciting!  We have some Preschool Prep Series DVD + workbook sets for sight words.  We are also probably going to be using Phonics Pathways, too.

We will be doing lots of letter recognition worksheets, coloring, writing, drawing, art, & more.  We are already planning a trip to the Kennedy Space Center (two of the science subjects focused this year at CC are physics & astronomy... PERFECT for the Kennedy Space Center!) in the next few months.  We are planning to start/plant/harvest a garden.  We will be adding chickens to our property which E will help care for.

One aspect I am very excited about is E's woodworking classes.  My MIL is a master crafts(wo)man & has agreed to teach our little one once a week!  He already has his own safety glasses, screwdrivers, hammers, hand-powered-drill, saw, & tape measurer!  They will be working on building various projects at her discretion.  She said initially they will be working on him sanding the wood pieces down, then sawing & nailing/screwing together.  How awesome to be learning these skills at 4 years old!?  And, he gets to spend time with his grandmother at the same time!!

For math, we will be concentrating on counting, multiplication/skip counting, clock/time recognition, money counting/recognition, & anything else we find!  We will cook to practice math & reading.  We will garden to learn math, we will use any opportunity we can to learn math & reading.

We will read a lot together.  Most of this year will probably consist of me reading to E, but I'm sure the transition will slowly occur to him reading much of the books.  We will get a membership to the much larger county library in the town near us so that we can access as many DVDs, books, & classes as possible.

We have a membership to a local museum that has several animals, an old homestead with buildings, a train caboose, a playground, & weekly homeschool lessons.  We hope to attend as many of these classes for homeschoolers as possible (one or two hours per lesson).  This a very hands-on museum & has been wonderful to visit.  E already has learned the difference between cold-blooded & warm-blooded animals (among other lessons) because of walking around & talking about the animals.

I'm sure I'm forgetting lots, but we have lots of plans.  I am a little overwhelmed at some of the tasks I need to finish before starting our CC in September, but I have a Mentor Mom that has been helping me & I think once we are doing it... it'll be easier & flow better.  I'm trying to take it day by day & have been working on our homeschool cubbies.  I'll plan out lessons & leave room for spontaneity & flexibility.  There is also a weekly local homeschool group that meets at a playground each week & has a very active Facebook group.  Lots of people to interact with & ask questions to... I hope we can jump right into that community meeting, too!

I plan to be sharing photos & details about our journey.  And his little uniform?!  Adorable...  ;)

Much love to you all!  Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Blueberry Season!

This afternoon, in nearly 100* heat, Little Guy & I went blueberry picking.  We went this afternoon for two reasons... I obligated myself to bring some to the Ladies Luncheon at our church tomorrow AND we'd been talking about for over a week.  We've had swim lessons this week, so no morning pickin' was possible.  :)  {More on those swim lessons later.}

We've been going to this particular blueberry farm for over 5 years off & on.  The last three summers we have taken Little Guy.  I'm sure the progression of pictures would be cute to see together!  The owners are wonderful & the blueberries are organically raised, priced cheap, & super yummy.

"Momma!"

Can you consider this an action shot?  :)

We had a somewhat traumatic experience during this visit.  Well, traumatic for Momma... Not so much for Little Guy.  I may write about it later & just wait to publish... One of those experiences that you think you may laugh about in the future, vow to embarrass your child later for it, & cry for a while about, too!

We ended up picking 4 pounds of blueberries that will be eaten at the Ladies Luncheon, given to my parents, & baked into some sweet treats.  I'm hoping we can knock out one or two recipes with our first "harvest" of blueberries.  Little Guy LOVES to help in the kitchen, so I'm sure I'll have some photos to share of our prep & product.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We have a few events at church, but plan to head to the beach on Sunday to relax & celebrate Father's Day.  Very excited about that!

The Little One's Closet

I have decided to follow the Home Organization 101 Project from the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons.  Basically, it is a 14 week schedule of organizing 14 areas of your home.  Since we have been purging & working on each room since last summer (when I officially became a full time stay-at-home-mama)... I am revamping the way I follow the schedule to hopefully cover several areas each week.

One Tuesday, New Years Day, we worked on the shed.  Since we don't have a garage, I am still considering this my "garage" area.  So, week 2 is done!  :)  Maybe I will post pictures of that later!

Today, I wanted to go through my son's closet.  It had become a dumping grounds for stuff when I wanted to do a quick clean up, or go clothes given to us in the next size & I was too lazy to open the storage tubs to place them in, & was just chaotic.

Really, chaotic.  See for yourselves...

Basically, to start with, I ran upstairs while the boy was watching a bit of TV.  I cleared out EVERYTHING from the closet.  I didn't take a picture of this because it's pretty self-explanatory!  In fact, I'd even taken some stuff out of the closet before I thought to take the before pictures... so there was even more clothing in the closet when I opened it up!  Yikes!  While I was clearing everything out, I sorted into basic piles: items I knew were too small or I didn't love, items that didn't belong in the closet, clothing pile, & trash.  Then, I went downstairs to be with the boy.  This clearing out didn't take but 5 minutes or so.  Not too long, but it was a start.

Then, we ate lunch & headed back upstairs together.  It was nearing his naptime, so I wanted to work quickly.  He was even able to "help" me with some tasks.  First, I re-sorted the clothing pile & made sure to grab anything under size 3t or above 4t.  Then, with the remaining pile of 3t clothing, I hung them all on the same hangers & just hung them in the closet.  (I purchased little green hangers for this closet after our last consignment sale.  I bought them from Target & love that his hangers are all matching now.  The pants, unfortunately, are all from the stores when the pants were purchased, so even though they aren't green... all of his non-soft pants are hanging in the closet.)  When I finished, I thought I wouldn't need the extra hanging rod, but after reviewing some piles of laundry... I added the second rod.  

Next, I sorted the 4t clothing pieces into like piles & folded them all after I removed any hangers.  I placed them into green baskets/bins.  (My mother & I purchased these before E was born.  Their uses have evolved into many areas & I love them.  Four of them store his toys in a shelf & now the remaining four store clothes in the next size up.  I left one empty because I know my mother already has some clothes to fill it up!)  They were also labeled using some cardstock & twine.

                                    

Then, I threw them on the top shelf!  :)  Next, I had E help me with his hats; we tried each one on & set aside the ones that are too small.  I threw the hats & beanies, along with any gloves, into a small green bucket.  At this point, the closet was almost done.  I pulled out any shoes that were too small out & then placed shoes in the next size up at the top of the shoe hanger.  (I will admit that my son has more shoes than what is shown here; we have a great IKEA shoe cabinet in our entryway that most of our shoes tuck into.  Makes it super easy when coming or going!)

Then, I used the tub already in the closet to fill up the stuff that was too small.  And found another tub (already cleared out prior to today) & filled it mostly up, too.  Since I usually participate in our local consignment semi-annual sales, I threw in any hangers that weren't green... I will use those to hang the shirts I  will list to sell at said consignment sales.  I gathered up the trash.  I added the hamper, overnight luggage, & the extra hangers we had.  I also hung his jacket, 4t, for next year in the closet because it was too puffy to throw in the baskets.  

Here's a couple of pictures of the finished product:

And the pile of stuff leaving the closet... Two tubs of clothing, two sets of adult-sized hangers, & a bag full of trash!  

So, with less than an hour & using materials I already had, we have a cleared out, decluttered, open closet for the toddler!  (This also means Week #8 can be crossed off!)

Hope this helped to inspire you to set a goal of an area, or 14 areas, & knock them out!  I would love to hear about any of your projects &, although I'm no expert, I love to encourage others to meet their goals!  Speaking of goals, I'm working on my January post of the 10 goals I made.  Hopefully I can accomplish all 10 by the end of the month!  :)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Operation Christmas Child: Shoeboxes!

Since last year, I have been saving up little things for our shoeboxes.  An extra toy from the Chick-Fil-A kids meal, a free toothbrush given out at a festival, some donated fabric to create a tote or pillowcase dress... Washcloths on clearance, boxes of crayons that were only a quarter each in August, soap, & toothbrushes.  My mother & friend had donated NIP beanie babies that went, yep, you guessed it... in my shoebox tub!  It sat in the closet all year long slowly getting filled.

Our church was able to surpass our goal of 1000 boxes, so this year our goal is 1500!  I'm not sure that we will make it, but we are certainly trying to do as much as we can to help get there!

Since I was feeling overwhelmed anyways trying to figure out how to complete our boxes, it was perfect that a good friend in the small group mentioned getting together with the idea of packing together.  Amazing how God puts those people in your life, right?!  So, with Melissa's help & encouragement, we started planning.

Our small group met up several weeks ago for our own packing party.  It was kind of a last minute thing with only a week for people to sign up for items to bring.  We used a website that allows the administrator to create a list of items needs & then allows others to sign up.  It sends a reminder email & worked wonderfully.  I input different things I could think of, then added what we had already purchased throughout the year, then others in the small group added their ideas & what they had already purchased!  We even asked others outside of our small group to donate or help pack or both!

The kids were welcome at the packing party, we had taco chicken chili & peanut butter bars out for the taking, & tons of stuff all over the place.  The items were organized into "like" piles, then the guys started folding up the boxes...

At a minimum, each box contained:

** Toothbrush & Toothpaste

** Soap & Washcloth

** Crayons & Notebook or Coloring Books

** Soft Toy Animal

** Lots of Other Toys

** Pencil, Pencil Sharpener, & Extra Eraser

** Candy

** Water Bottle

For the different age groups, we also added deodorant (ages 10-14), sewing kits (girls ages 5-9, 10-14), & matchbox cars (every boy box).

We ended up packing over 50 boxes!  53 to be exact!  I am so proud of our small group in donated time & money to bless kids overseas.  It is amazing what we take for granted & how over-indulged our own children can be when a toothbrush is a prized gift to another little boy or girl.  How often do we take our resources for granted?  How difficult is it for us to take $10 out of our pocket to fill a shoebox for a child?  If you don't have the time to fill a shoebox, you can donate money to apply to shipping these shoeboxes ($7/shoebox ships it around the world) OR pack-a-box on their website...

Visit Operation Christmas Child: Pack a Shoebox for more information.  Like them on Facebook to get even more creative ideas.  But, most importantly, open your heart for ways to serve others outside of our own circle, then pray specifically & expectantly for the child that receives each of those shoeboxes.

I have also created a Pinterest board to bookmark ideas & blog posts throughout the year, if you'd like to check that out:  Operation Christmas Child 2012 Board

Looking forward to sharing more ideas soon!  Next week, I plan to post some ideas to planning a shoebox party... We definitely did a great job, but I have thought of several things to make sure we do next year when our goal will be at least 120 packed shoeboxes for our small group!

Be Blessed!

Been a While, Ehh?

Well, obviously it's been a while since I updated. I could describe all of the reasons/excuses why I haven't been updating, but I will just catch ya up on what's been going on.

Firstly, we are in a different stage of "expecting"! This week, our homestudy will be sent to the State for licensure to become foster parents. I'm sure our situation will change over time, but as of right now we are requesting a child under the age of 3. More specifically & initially, an infant under 12mths. We aren't sure exactly where this will lead, but we can no longer deny the calling for us to open our home, our hearts, to a foster child. I could go on & on about how this has developed, but I imagine I will do that later. And I'm sure God will intricately weave an even more beautiful journey than I can imagine.

 {Just to hit some high notes... Yes, I'm anxious about having to give the child back up when family reunification occurs. I have to trust that God is bigger than my fears. I have to trust that there is some sort of purpose for the pain my heart has felt from a 7 year struggle with infertility; I feel that God is using the pain & unending heart-ache for His purpose & He will use this in me as a foster mother. For now, that is all!}

Since I was snapping a picture anyways, I thought I'd take a quick couple of the craft room. I was totally thrilled to be able to purchase this craft table from a friend & it is the center of attention in the craft room! :) There is still plenty I plan to add to this room, but it will be a slow moving process. Which is great, cuz it's always fun to add stuff while you find it!

Here's a corner in the craft room... Filled with Operation Christmas Child shoebox goodies! I've been saving some stuff up all year & our small group will be having a packing party this weekend, so I will update with more about that after it! I'm looking forward to filling them all up & getting them to the church.

We are anticipating to be licensed as early as the middle of November! That is a bit earlier than I expected, so I will be packing a last-minute diaper bag with bottles, a bit of formula, & some gender-neutral outfits in various sizes to accommodate any child we may get called to take in.

We definitely would appreciate your prayers & support as we begin this foster parenting journey!