3rd Grade Curriculum

We are getting ready to start school again. This summer has been a flurry of activity and it is not quite over. I have come to the conclusion, however, that homeschool mamas don't get a summer vacation. Before we even finished 2nd grade, I was planning 3rd grade. I have worked and shopped all summer and I think I finally have everything ready!

This year, we are using Bob Jones. The exceptions are spelling (we are using Spelling Power) and math (we are continuing with Saxon). I think I am finally going to be satisfied with our curriculum choices. I have tried several different approaches, but after researching our choices, I think this is what is going to work best for us.

I am excited about the new curriculum, but I am even more excited about our "No-Curriculum Fridays" aka "Charlotte Mason Days". I am not ready to jump into the Charlotte Mason method with both feet, so this year I am just going to dip my toe in and see how I like it. I have blocked off Fridays for literature, music and art appreciation, and nature studies. We are starting with Swiss Family Robinson, Vivaldi, and Degas.

Other books on our reading list are: The Hundred Dresses, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, Black Beauty, Pollyanna, Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Anne of Green Gables. I am sure we will add to the list. I also have several poems I want to share.

Our artists for the year are Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Rodin, Moore, Vermeer, da Vinci, Grandma Moses, and Goya.

Our composers are Vivaldi, Handel, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Williams.

I also purchased "The Bumper Book of Nature" for our nature study. I am hoping you will find us at the park, Palo Duro Canyon, Wildcat Bluff, or Lake McClellan on Fridays, sitting on my grandmother's quilt, reading, sketching, and enjoying life.

If you know our little family, then you know we are always on the go! This year Bailey will continue with suzuki violin, ballet at the Landance Conservatory, and Keepers of the Faith. Zack will be continuing with flag football, Lego Club, piano lessons, and basketball.

This is going to be a great school year!

Breaking All The Rules

Everyone has their own little oddities. I know someone who can't eat the corners of Doritos because they are too pokey. He breaks them off first. I know someone else who counts the ice cubes as they fall in the glass. Someone else can't eat the part of the sandwich that he touched. Everyone has little oddities.

My dad has more than his fair share of oddities. His socks have a left and right foot. He marks his work shirts with a "w" on the label. I could write a book about my dad. The sad thing is that I have inherited his predisposition for oddities, or as my kids call them, "mom's rules". They are more than happy to announce mom's rules to anyone who visits our home. I try to tone things down when company is around. I just haven't taught my kids to be gracious to others when it comes to my rules. That lesson is coming soon, though. I mean, I don't want people to thing I am weird or anything.

My husband calls me neurotic, my kids call me strict, I just think I am, um, whimsical.

I can't sleep in a bed that has not been made, I cannot walk bare-footed on carpet that has not been vacuumed in the past 24 hours, Kris must sit on my left when eating, at the grocery store - I must take the second item on the shelf, the window blinds must be slanted down in my bedroom - slanted up on all other windows, I cannot serve with a spoon smaller that 3 inches in diameter. . . .

I count things, like legos. I went through a period of several months, when I counted Zack's legos every night to make sure he hadn't lost any. I finally put them in the top of his closet because I couldn't stop counting them. (For those of you who are feeling bad for Zack, he now has 1,562+ legos and he is free to play with all of them. Oh, and I have stopped counting them.)

Oh, and don't get me started about the importance of hand washing, bleaching all household surfaces, and the number of bottles of hand sanitizer we go through.

Germ-a-phobe? Worry-wart? Compulsive? No! Neat freak? Not at all!

I am "Whimsical", remember?!

I am whimsical because my oddities are balanced by my somewhat messy closets, my fanciful art supplies, my unorganized recipe collection, and my love of dirt (as long as it stays outdoors).

So where I am I going with this? Oh, yes! Coloring books!

Coloring books?

Yes, I don't like pages to be torn out of them and I most definitely do not like the pages to then be stuck to the wall.

But that is exactly what makes my little Zacky-boy happy. My mother bought him a poster-sized coloring book of Toy Story 3. He colored 10 pages, ripped them out and taped them to his wall.

It looked, um, well, messy. Delightfully messy. So, I gave him some of that sticky stuff that will not damage the paint. I lived with it for a while without any major issues until it got hot and he started running his ceiling fan every night. The fan blows them off the wall. Every morning it's the same. I go into his room and tell him to make his bed and pick up those pictures - those delightfully messy pictures that have been torn out of their book and stuck to the wall!

Today I did something I never thought I would do. I actually stuck the pictures to the wall with thumb tacks. THUMB TACKS, I TELL YOU! And I did it MYSELF! Thumb tacks make HOLES in the wall! There are 10 pictures with 4 tacks in each. THERE ARE 40 TINY HOLES IN ZACK'S WALL! I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight!

This will either be major break through for me, or it will push me over the edge and I will start eating purple paint because my friend, David told me too.

Heaven help us, I don't know what my little world is coming to!

The next thing you know I will be getting a pedicure!



(Oh, yes. In case I haven't told you, I can't let anyone touch my feet.)

Wonder Woman

I love life. I love doing things. I love being involved with great projects. I don't usually do things half-way and I don't usually say "no".

In fact, "no" is not an easy word for me to say. I seldom say it. If someone asks me to do something the answer is most often "Yes!" It's not a guilt thing, it's just an "I want to do EVERYTHING" thing.

I have always seen myself as Wonder Woman. I have always been able to get a lot done in a short amount of time and on very little sleep. Really, I can do it all!

But, spring was stressful. Especially the month of May. I kept telling myself if I could just make it to the summer months, things would slow down and I could breath.

So, in June we did VBS, started working in my grandmother's house, went to Wonderland, went on a short fishing trip, had a garage sale, celebrated 2 birthdays and Father's day, went to the zoo, and volunteered at the used curriculum sale. We have 6 weeks left of summer and on the calendar we have church camp, 3 (yes, 3!)out-of-town fiddle contests, a ladies retreat, vacation, summer violin recital, July 4th @ Mom's, and whatever else pops into our lives.

Oh, and school! I have 6 weeks to wade though a huge stack (about 2 feet!) of teaching manuals for our new curriculum. I also need to re-organize our school room and set up our new workbox system. I have 300 pages of learning centers to cut out and laminate.

All of this is piled on top of normal, day-to-day chores and activities and 2 very active kids who are always on the go, creating new adventures and begging to go to the pool.

Please don't misunderstand - I love all of the activity! I really do! I am just starting to realize how over-committed and over-extended I have become.

I am a fairly organized person. I have schedules and lists and calendars. I have always believed if I could fit it into my "box", then I could handle anything. I am Wonder Woman, right? As long as I didn't have to physically be 2 places at once, I could do it. But this morning, I walked into the laundry room, looked at my pile of laundry that I could have sworn was caught up, and I thought, "Wow. I guess I can't do it all. Maybe I am not Wonder Woman, after all."

It's a sad day but, I guess I need to hang up my Golden Tiara and my Lasso of Truth. I need to slide my red patent boots back under the bed, grab my calender, a big glass of sweet-tea, and a fat black marker. Then I need to go sit in the shade and start "x-ing" things off the calendar and penciling in things like "breath", "take a long bubble bath", and "date night with Kris". I received an email from my friend, Leah, today and something she said has really resonated with me. I think it's time to cut out something "good" for something "excellent."

I'm saving my Wonder Woman gear, though. You never know, I may need to pull it back out again some day.

It's Gotcha Day!

I originally posted this on June 21, 2009. Today is my sweet Bailey's "Gotcha Day", so I decided to re-post. Happy Gotcha Day, Sweet Bailey Jean!!!




Eight years ago today, our Bailey flew home to Texas and officially became a part of our family.

We had waited 9 years to have a child we could call our own. It was, at times, an extremely painful wait. But when my baby girl was placed in my arms, all of that pain was wiped away. It was if it had never happened. The wait was over and we were finally together.

That night at the airport, cameras were snapping and people were laughing and talking. Documents were presented and information passed hands. But I was in another world. I just hugged her and cried and said over and over again, "Mommy loves you, Mommy loves you, Mommy loves you . . . . "

Looking back over my life, I realize Bailey has always been a part of me. I loved her long before I knew her. I will never understand how God put us together or why he chose to give her life a world away from my own. It doesn't matter. She is mine. We may not look the same, but our hearts beat the same beat. We are a part of each other.

At night, while she is asleep, I sneak into her room to watch her sleep. I look at her little face and wonder what she saw in the first few months of her life. Who held her first? Who changed her first diaper? Who fed her the first time? Who was the first to rock her to sleep? I want to see them, too. I want to thank them for loving her. I want them to know how much she has grown and how happy she is.

When Bailey talks about adoption, she explains it this way, "Jesus gave me to my mommy and daddy. Then, he stuck us together like glue. Our family is glue." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Craziness!

I love summer! I love trips to the pool, VBS, snow cones, trips to the mountains, cook-outs, flip flops, Wonderland, July 4th celebrations, and lazy afternoons. This will be Bailey and Zack's first year to go to church camp as real campers instead of Mom and Dad's helpers and they can't wait! I am loving this summer!

I love summer so much that I usually try to stretch it as far as it will go. I push school to the back of my mind and just drink in the sunshine. But something happened this summer that has forced me to think about the coming school year much sooner. (sigh) The PCHEA Used Curriculum Sale.

You see, I have been wanting to change curriculum. However, the curriculum I chose was above and beyond our homeschooling budget, so I knew I was going to have to get creative. I was going to have to sell our old curriculum and try to find some used curriculum. The only problem was, it was going to force me to think about school during the happiest time of the year - summer!

But, I did it anyway. I cleaned out the old and brought in the new (well, gently used.) I am so thankful that God led me to ebay, the Used Curriculum Sale, and Mardel's 90% off sale. I am so thankful He led someone to my stack of goodies at the sale.

The result? Amazing.

Next year, we will using Bob Jones curriculum for a fraction of the cost and I am thrilled. We are also using Spelling Power and Saxon Math in addition to my friend, Bob's curriculum.

All of this has brought about a flurry of lesson planning, plotting a course of study, scheduling, list making . . . .

Which has left me SCREAMING at myself to stop and enjoy summer! I have to break free from the "homeschool mode"! Quick - someone bring me a watermelon snow cone! It's too early for this craziness!

Top 10 Reasons I Don't Have an iphone

So, I'm sitting in a meeting at church Sunday afternoon when a man walks in the door and asks for help. He says he needs a gas card and some groceries. We tell him who he needs to talk to and he walks out the door. He stands on the sidewalk for a few minutes, then pulls out his phone and calls someone.

I don't have an iphone. There are lots of reasons why I don't. One reason is I buy my own groceries and gas. Maybe I am being jaded and cynical, but it bothered me.

I get asked a lot, "You don't have an iphone? Why not?" Again, there are lots of reasons. One reason is I don't need a phone to solidify my place in society. In the words of my awesome friend Lana, "Your phone is not a status symbol - it is a way to communicate."

So when did cell phones become our identities? I am a lot of things, but I am not my phone. I am an artist, a voracious reader, a wife, a mother, a lover of shoes, and a pretty good fiddle player.

I simply choose not to spend my money on things like iphones. I'm not criticizing those that do. If you have an iphone, that's fine. Really, it's ok. People who have iphones are not evil. It just bothers me when people who have iphones throw it in my face and try to make me feel second class because I choose to spend my money on something else. You are not making yourself look successful and amazing. You are making yourself look shallow and foolish. You look silly. If your phone defines who you are, then you aren't much.

To be perfectly honest, I could have an iphone if I wanted one. It's not a matter of the "haves" and the "have nots". I could re-arrange my spending habits and go buy an iphone this week. It's just not what I want to do. I know it's hard to believe, but I don't want to spend money on technology. It's not who I am. It's not what I do. It's not right or wrong, it's just me. That's all.

So, don't try to impress me with your phone. Phones don't impress me. People impress me. People who are intelligent, articulate, creative, loving, and passionate impress me. My friend who has helped countless refugee families settle into homes impresses me. My nephew who is currently in Belgium, sharing his faith with people on the streets impresses me. My husband who works endless hours to provide for our family impresses me. A fellow adoptive mother who moved to China to become a missionary in her daughters' homeland impresses me. Claude Monet, Kathy Thibodeaux, Chopin, Dr. Kim Duk Whang, Harper Lee . . . these people impress me. Good grief, the person who invented vanilla Dr. Pepper impresses me more than someone who simply bought an iphone.

So in honor of amazing people everywhere, here are the top 10 reasons I don't have an iphone:


10. I don't try to keep up with they Jones'. They try to keep up with me.

9. Bailey takes ballet at a private conservatory.

8. Zack plays sports.

7. I like to buy nice art supplies for both my children and myself.

6. I have 68 pairs of shoes.

5. I spend money on experiences instead of technology. I would rather climb a mountain, visit a museum, or go to a concert than have an iphone.

4. I am incredibly beautiful, smart, artistic, and talented. I don't need an iphone to convince others I am an amazing human being. My phone is not my status symbol.

3. My children's needs and wants come before my own. They are well-fed, well-clothed, and well-educated. We work hard to give them opportunities many children do not have. They live a full life.

2. I like to read books, not screens.

and the number one reason is ............





1. I don't want one.

The Art of Creativity

College.

I think I was addicted.

It took me 7 years to get a 4 year degree.

I am not a slow learner. I did not fail classes and have to take them over. I wasn't lazy. I took any where from 12 to 21 hours a semester. I even went to summer school. The problem was, I kept changing my major.

I had 4 different majors in 7 years. Art, Dance, Theater, Education, then back again. I just couldn't make up my mind. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. No, that's not right. I knew what I wanted to be. I wanted to be everything.

I came close to getting my degree in dance. I wanted to be a choreographer for a big ballet company. I came even closer to getting a degree in theater. I wanted to direct plays. I also wanted to be an art historian, a photographer, an interior designer, a writer, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker. As my dad says, every time I got "in danger of graduating", I changed my major.

If you know me, then you probably know how this story ends. After too many years in college, my Daddy took me to lunch, then took me to the registrar's office. He slapped my transcript on the desk and said, "What can you give her for this?" The answer was, "a Bachelor's degree in General Studies".

So, I graduated. My mom sang the "Hallelujah Chorus" at my graduation. Literally. They called my name, I shook the mayor's hand, my mom stood up and let 'er rip.

I learned a lot in those 7 years and I have so many sweet memories. One day my boyfriend (now husband) rescued me in the parking lot outside the fine art's building. I had driven my car over a parking curb and got it stuck. One time my dad sent me flowers after I made an 'A' on an algebra test. One morning I told my friends in the dance studio about my first date with Kris. They all agreed it was a disaster and I would probably never hear from him again! Two semesters, I helped teach ballet to some desperate Ag major cowboys trying to get their fine art requirement.

I've heard people say the most important thing about college is getting that piece of paper that says you graduated. When you interview for a job, no one ever asks what you learned - they ask if you have a degree. Maybe that's true, but I love that I was able to learn so many different things.

My favorite class was called "The Art of Creativity". It kind of wrapped up everything that I loved about college; about life. I'm in my 30's now, but I still think about that class and that goofy, slump shouldered professor who taught it. That class was a real turning point for me. It helped me see that I didn't have to settle on one area of creativity. I didn't have to just be a dancer or just be a painter. I could tie everything that I loved together and just be an artist.

Looking at my life today, I realize that I am everything I was back in college. A friend of mine once told me I was "too passionate", another told me I had A.D.H.D. My life isn't a life that can fit into any one career path. I still paint, write, create, and even teach. (See? I knew those semesters as an education major would come to good use some day!) I am always wanting to try something new. I guess that is a phase I will never out-grow. My new goals are to master watercolors and read the classics.

So, I guess I wasn't addicted to college. I just love life.