Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria

We have been learning about early America. We learned about Leaf Erickson, Christopher Columbus, and now early living in Jamestown. We had a fun project one day making boats out of tin foil and sailing them in the bathtub. It was a blast! After we were done, all the kids wanted to take a bath and play with their new boats.

Our first art project

Our first art project was basically done on the fly. I had no idea what I was doing. We just did it. We drew swans, and I found out Brooke is a perfectionist. She was devistated that her swan did not look like a swan. Of course, I told her I thought it was a beautiful swan. She yelled that it wasn't and ran off to cry. What an eye opener for me! Since then, things have settled down. We have art almost ever day, and I think all of them are excellent artists. I will post more art soon. The first swan is Brookes, 2nd Paiges, 3rd Devins.

Creepy Crawlies....Eww!

I think most people know I have always been afraid of spiders. Since having children and our last house having an infestation of fiddle backs, I have pretty much gotten over that fear...until today. The one spider that completely freaks me out is the black widow. I knew Oklahoma had them, but I had never seen a live/real one. That all changed as we were cooking out tonight. Somehow (I'm really not sure why) I looked under the grill and there were two. I think one was a male. They were on opposite sides of the grill from each other, and it freaked me out!!!!! So, I jumped on the internet and made sure I was right. They are both dead, but it took me about 10 minutes to work up the courage to kill them. This is what they looked like. These are stock photos. I took pics, but my camera is not good enough. They just look like a little blur.

School time

We are doing great! We have our good days and our bad, but I am really enjoying it. Today we went to the park and they played a while. We had a snack under a tree and read Squanto. We are enjoying this time together so much! My children are getting better at being obedient, and they are not fighting with each other as much. It is amazing how they get along when they have to! Even on the hard days, I still know we have made the right decision.

First days of school

I would like to start this by saying thank you to Jennifer for helping me get our room organized and ready for school! Also, a big thank you to my mom for helping out with the kids that day. Five kids is a lot of work!

We started school yesterday (Wed), and I wasn't sure we were off to such a great start. I knew it was going to be different, but I just did not know what to expect from my children. They told me a lot about how school works, and they told me a lot about how "this is boring." Our school computer broke down...we have to get a new hard drive...and that really stressed me out. All that said, school only took about an hour (we are starting out slow, and working our way into longer days). We got to spend good, quality time together, and when Jake came home, the children actually showed him everything they had done. That meant the world to me! I guess at bedtime the children also told him about school again and how much they liked it. Of course, they would never tell me this sort of thing, but Jake was sure to pass it on. What a relief!!!!!

So today was our second day, and we whizzed through it. They could not believe how fast we were done, and I did NOT hear any complaining!!!!!!! It was a much better day, and we even went on our first field trip. We went to bounce U and they got to run and jump and play. It was a lot of fun. I am so proud of our children. They are doing great!

Next week our days will be longer, but so far everything is going good. Tomorrow, we are going on our first nature walk, and we will be doing some crafts together. This is the best job I have ever had.

Why we chose homeschool

For those of you who would like to know why we chose homeschool, here is one of the many reasons we made this choice:

The bible says to "train your children in the ways they should go, and when they are old, they will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6 I know this to be true from experience, so we wanted our children to have a Christian education. We sent them to Christian school, and everything was good...or so we thought. When I started working to pay for their school, I noticed the stress on the whole family. The kids were getting up at 6:30 am, we had to leave for school/work by 7:30. The whole process of getting them ready was extremely stressfull. They were tired and so was I. They would have a full day at school, go to after school care and come home at 4:30-5pm. At home we would struggle through trying to clean house, do homework, make dinner, karate, baths, and bedtime by 8pm. As you can see, there was not much down time for anyone, much less spending quality time with the kids. To me, it was not worth it.

The big eye opener was when one of my students parents told me I was their childs second mom. I felt like his second mom. I had this child for 7 hours a day, and I nurtured and taught this child ever school day. It was a huge complement to me that they liked me so much they referred to me as second mom. But what about my kids? I realized they also had second moms. This did not sit well with me. I am supposed to be raising my kids, but instead I am raising other peoples children. Because I am working, I hardly have time for my own children, and they are picking up behaviors I cannot change because I am not around enough to influence them. I tried to change these behaviors, but how could I? They were with other people for 8 of thier 13.5 hours awake, and most of the time I was with them we were rushing. I realized I was FAILING at my job. My real job...raising my children. I want my children to be successful in life. It may sound like I'm over-protective or a control freak, but I don't care. They are my kids, and they are important to me. I am responsible for how they turn out. My time with them is too short to work it all away. I am excited to start this adventure with them.

Getting ready for school

Friday is my last day at work! I am working hard to complete our school room (dining room) and get all our books. It is a lot of work, but it will be so worth it! I cannot wait to teach our children. When I started working, I felt as if we had lost a little of our connection. I never had enough time to do the things I wanted to do with them, and I was alway exhausted. Now we will spend a lot of time together, and I will be able to guide them "in the ways they should go." I can't wait to enter into this new phase of our lives. We are going to learn so much this year, and I am actually going to know exactly what they are learning!!! The children are also excited about starting school. We are having fun picking out all the stuff for school. The first day of school is scheduled for September 3rd. If everything is ready before then, we may get to start early. We are going to have so much fun!