First full week of school - so far so good :-)

This was our first full week of school and if every week is as good as this week we will have a good year. Dare I hope? I feel much more together this year than I have at this time any other year. We seem to be nicely falling into a grove. I really hope it continues.

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers does a homeschool weekly wrap-up and I've decided try to participate this year. That's the inspiration for this post.

I think one of the reasons for our success so far this year is the Homeschool Helper app. I am loving it! I can see room for some improvement in the app but it is definitely a help in keeping me focused. I love checking the completed lesson box as we complete each lesson.

Another reason for our success so far is the method I've come up with to keep us on track. Besides the Homeschool Helper app, where I input our lesson plans before we do them, Anna and I also both have our own clip board to hold papers for us to journal about the lessons after the fact and our own binders to hold completed papers.

 

Anna does daily journaling pages. Every day she puts the date at the top of a new page and then as we do the subject throughout the day she writes the subject name on the page and writes at least one sentence about the lesson for that subject when we complete it for the day. Once both sides of a journaling page have been filled in, so after two days, the page gets taken out of the clipboard and placed into Anna's binder.

 

I do subject journaling pages. I have a page in my clipboard for each subject and I write the date and a summary of what we've done each day on each subject after we have completed it. Once both sides of a sheet have been filled in it gets transferred from my clipboard to my binder.

 

One other thing that helps us stay on track and feel accomplished is Anna's subject list on her ipad. We made the list in the reminders app and she gets to choose what order she wants to do the subjects in and to check them off when they are complete. She really enjoys that. Every morning we just uncheck the list and start again.

 

I tend to start school slow each year and gradually introduce the subjects into our schedule, but we're further ahead this year than past years. So far the subjects that we are doing are Bible, language arts (reading, writing, spelling, and grammar), math, social studies (history and current events), art, and music.

We start each day with what we call calendar time. Basically this is just a time when we write today's day and date on our white board and Anna writes it on her journaling page. We also discuss how many days are left in the month and if there is anything special about the day.

Next comes Bible time. Anna has been watching me do my bible reading using the YouVersion app on my iPad for some time now and she asked if she could do the same, so I set up an account for her and we checked out the reading plans to see which ones would be good for her. We were excited to find they had some Bible reading plans from Phil Vischer, creator of the What's in the Bible DVDs which Anna loves. She decided she wanted to do the Walk With Jesus: 21 Days Through Matthew plan. Each day there's a video, a devotional reading and scripture passage to read, and many days there is a colouring sheet to print. She has been working through it all week and loving it.

Scripture memory is also a part of our Bible time. We are working our way through the list of scriptures in the Parent Handbook for Scripture Memory. Although the list is grouped by age we are ignoring the age indicators and simply working our way through the list. We are using the Scripture Typer app to learn the verses. I've been using the app for a while now myself and thought Anna would enjoy it so I set her up on it. I loaded the first lot of verses into the app for her and she has mastered 5 verses this week. Every day she reviews the verses that need reviewing and starts a new one if she feels ready. She has been enjoying it so far.

Once the calendar time and Bible time are done Anna is free to do the rest in whatever order she wants, and everyday was different this week so in no particular order here is a summary of what we did in each subject this week.

For grammar we are using First Language Lessons. I love how simple, yet thorough the lessons are in this program. We started Level two this year and this week we did the first five lessons. We talked about common and proper nouns, pronouns, action verbs and state of being verbs. All but the state of being verb lesson was a review of last year's work. Poem memorization is also part of the program and this week we reviewed the poems we learned last year and started work on a new poem - The Goops. We don't quite have the poem memorized yet but Anna does read it with great expression.

 

We started using Writing With Ease for writing last year. We enjoyed it, so we are continuing with it this year and have started Level two. We did the lessons for week one this week which involved narrating Aseop's The Grasshopper and the Owl and The Fox and the Stork. Anna had her first dictation exercise this week and was excited to do her second dictation exercise also. Hopefully the excitement keeps up.

Spelling Power is a program I used with my other children and I decided it was time to start spelling with Anna. I love the way this program is set up for short lessons and you can move along at the pace appropriate for your child. Each day you give the child a pretest/teaching test of about 5 minutes and then you spend about 5 minutes studying the words the child got wrong. You're also supposed to spend about 5 minutes doing skill exercises but so far our pretest and studying has been taking up more than the suggested time so we've skipped the skill exercises. We're getting faster though so maybe we'll fit some skill exercises in next week. Anna has really been enjoying spelling so far. This week we got through the first four word lists, learning the rules for four of the short vowels (a,e,i,o). Anna did a great job! She misspelled just one or two words each day and needed only one extra day to study a word before mastering it. She loves that one of the studying steps is to write the word in the box of sugar we made just for that purpose. The words have been very simple so far and I'm hoping she can keep up the good attitude as the words get harder.

 

I am not using a set program for reading. My plan is that we always have a read aloud we are working on together and that we have a time of silent reading every day when Anna can read whatever she wants to herself.

Presently for our read aloud we are listening to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the Books Should Be Free site. I also downloaded the book from that site into IBooks so we are following along in IBooks with the audio. We actually started this about a week or so ago and by the end of this week we made it to chapter 13. In a notebook we have been keeping a list of characters as they appear in the book and writing a short summary of each chapter after we listen to it. Anna is really enjoying it and asks to listen to a couple of chapters most days.

At the beginning of the week Anna started a new Magic Kitten book. She has read a few books in this series lately. Moonlight Mischief is the book she is working on at the moment and she's made it to chapter seven so far. She enjoys silent reading time and is quick to grab her book and set in to reading.

Last year we started using Story of the World for history. We worked our way through Volume One: Ancient Times last year and enjoyed it, so we started Volume Two: The Middle Ages this year. This week we finished chapter one, about the fall of Rome, and started chapter two, about the early days of Britian. We read a section for the book each day doing shared reading - Anna and I taking turns reading paragraphs. Then we do the review questions and write a sentence or two narration about what we read. We did pretty good with this most of the week but Friday was a disaster. Anna had left history for last and she was tired and her attention was gone. She couldn't recall any of the information when we did the review questions so we will be repeating that reading on Monday, hopefully with better results.

Along with our history, we also covered a couple of current events in social studies this week. On September 11th we spent some time discussing what happened on September 11, 2001. We googled for pictures of New York before and after the destruction of the twin towers. We looked up New York and Washington, D.C. on our map. Friday we spent some time learning about Jonathan Trappe and his attempted crossing of the Atlantic powered by 370 hellium balloons. He failed in his attempt and landed on the west coast of Newfoundland not too far from where we live. We had some fun exploring Jonathan Trappe's sight and watching the videos on it earlier in the day and then Anna was quite interested in watching the news reports about his landing in Newfoundland later.

Anna has been struggling with Math. We've tried a number of different approaches and programs but it just does not seem to be clicking and sticking. Last month I downloaded and read Let's Play Math and I've decided to take the author's advice and put the textbooks and teachers manuals aside for a while and work on cultivating the aha! factor in math. This week I realized that I had tried too quickly to move Anna from concrete to abstract in math and that she needs me to slow down a bit and have some fun with her, so that's what we've been doing. And we really have had fun. And she really is learning. I intend to write more about this in another blog post later in the week so suffice it to say that this past week we touched on the concepts of measuring, money recognition and value, counting by tens, and adding and subtracting to ten. We did this by playing games such as race to ten, coin trade in (which we have retitled capture the looney), race to 100, add/equal, and measure me. I will add links to explanations of these games as I blog about them.

For music this year we are going to pick a song to learn each week. This week we decided to learn Chris Tomlin's Jesus Messiah. We found a YouTube video of Jesus Messiah and we listened to that and sang along with it each day. We printed off the lyrics so we could practice without the video when we got confident as the week progressed. Friday I taped Anna singing the song accapella.

 

For art this year I have decided that we will work on a least one art project each week. I have a blog post all ready to post about that with pictures of our projects from this week so suffice it to say here that Anna did two great sketches this week.

And that's our report for this week. It is a lot longer than I intended it to be. I promise next week won't be as long - maybe. :-)

So how was your week?

 

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Our Homeschool Space

Lisa, at Canadian Homeschooler, is posting a weekly homeschool photo challenge. I think I might try to participate throughout the year.

The first challenge - to post a picture of your school space - was posted earlier this week.

We don't have a space dedicated exclusively to homeschooling. Our homeschooling takes place all over our house. This is a picture I snapped today of Anna doing her silent reading. The white board sharing the couch with her tends to follow us wherever we might be working at the moment. There is a small bookcase at the end of the couch which holds most of our material. The two fold-up desks in the foreground are are new additions, and we're loving them. They, too, get moved around wherever we happen to need them. One is mine and one is Anna's.

 

The big world map on our living room wall plays a major role in our homeschooling. It gets references any time a place is mentioned throughout the day, be it in a book we're reading, a history or geography lesson, or a video, movie, or tv show we're watching. Along side the map is where we post printout of poems, songs, or other memory material we are working on.

 

My girl is big time into art so her art work is displayed in many places throughout the house.

 

 

So, that's a little peep into some of the homeschooling spaces in our home.

 

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Coin trade game

 

Inspired by a game suggestion in the Let's Play Math book, Anna and I have been having some fun. She loves the game and is learning the value of coins without realizing she's doing math. :-)

You need about 9 pennies, 4 nickels, 3 dimes, 4 quarters, and one looney per player.

We have double this because just two of us are playing. We keep our coins and a die in a ziplock bag.

Players take turns rolling the die. Each dot equals one cent. Players collect the number of cents indicated by their roll and then check to see if they can make any trades before the next player rolls. Once they have five pennies they trade it in for a nickel, two nickels get traded for a dime, two dimes and a nickel get traded for a quarter, and four quarters get traded for a looney. The first to get the looney wins.

Here's a video of us playing the game. You can tell how much she loves it by her excitement at the end, even though she lost.

 

 

 

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2k walk in 30 minutes

I walked again today! It's been a long time. Life got I'm the way and messed up my routine. Today everything finally fell in place for me to get a walk in. I walked 2k in 30 minutes. I know that is a very slow pace, but its better than not doing anything at all.

My walking may still be sporadic for a bit cause life is still crazy, but I will try to get in a walk here and there when I can. And I will blog about it because it helps me to be more motivated.

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I'm a grandmother!

...To a beautiful tiny baby girl. She came early! She was only 3 pounds 15 ounces, but she's perfectly healthy. God is good!

I was at my cousins house having a laugh the night before our river rafting adventure when I got a call from my youngest son. He was away working but he had received a call from his girl saying she was in pre-term labor and they were prepping her for a c-section.

Needless to say that changed my focus. I felt so helpless being so far from both of them. I did the only thing I could do, I prayed - for a healthy delivery, for peace and safety for mom, and for peace and a quick flight home for dad.

A couple hours later I got that word that we had a baby girl and that she and momma were doing fine. Daddy was still trying to get home to them.

This is the first look we got of our baby girl, sent in a text message.

My cousins had all gone to their rooms earlier having given me orders to let them know when I had any more info, or if I got any pictures. I ran around the house making sure everyone saw our baby and we all celebrated together.

Because the baby was so tiny they decided to fly her to a children's hospital where she would be sure to get the care she needed. Baby was flown out in the morning and momma was flown out in the afternoon. Daddy was still trying to get home to his girls.

I never really understood how tiny the baby was until I saw a picture of her in her mommy's arms

 

After a long couple of days travel daddy finally got to see his girl in person. Because she was so tiny and had to spend most of her time in an incubator, he didn't get to hold her right away but I was anxious to get a picture of her with her daddy.

When he finally got to hold her he quickly became a pro and enjoyed every minute of it.

I haven't had the opportunity to hold my granddaughter yet. I haven't even seen her in person much. Only two people are allowed in to see her at a time so any time I go visit her either her mommy or daddy have to leave, and I don't like to take that time away from them.

I am happy to report, however, that she is growing and doing great.

I can't wait to hold her and kiss her. Soon, hopefully.

 

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How I found out I was going to be a grandmother

Way back in January I was sitting in a movie theatre waiting for Les Miserable to start when my cell phone rang. I quickly stopped the ringing and checked to see who it was. It was my youngest son. He rarely calls. My first thought was that something was wrong, so I quickly sent him a text. This was our conversation:

I immediately started to cry, and the movie hadn't even started. :-) I quickly sent off a few more texts - spelling, grammar mistakes and all -

So, that was a Tuesday.

Four days later, on a Saturday night, at 6:51 in the evening, I get this text from my oldest son

 

It was a little odd for them to be going out to our place, about a 40 minute drive from their place, at that time of night, especially on the snowy night that it was, but we had friends visiting for the weekend that they wanted to see and probably wouldn't get to see if they didn't come then so I didn't think too much about it. They came and we had a nice little visit. Just before they left my son got his wife's purse and took something out of it and presented it to me saying that it was the real reason the came to visit. This is what he handed me

 

Needless to say I was in tears again and the grin that I had started wearing Tuesday got a little bigger. Both my boys were going to be daddies!

Both couples swore us to secrecy for a while until they saw the doctor and knew more about how far along they were. That prompted me to send the boys this text a few days later

 

So, that's how I found out I was going to be a grandmother, twice. When they finally saw the doctors and got their due dates all straightened out they were actually due just a little more than a week apart!

Here are the two beautiful mommies showing off their baby bumps a few months back.

 

 

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Community Bible Experience

I heard about the Community Bible Experience quite a while ago and loved the concept but couldn't get anyone to commit to doing it with me. Recently i decided to sign up for the free trial anyway, just to see if it was as great as I thought it was.

I downloaded the complete Books of the Bible:NT into iBooks and I love it! I had already started the YouVersion Community Bible Experience:NT reading plan a few days earlier and was really enjoying doing the readings in YouVersion but I like it even better reading it from the Books of the Bible:NT in IBooks. There is a better option for making highlights and notes and there's also the additional introduction to the books. The introduction to the books are great!

My one disappointment is that I haven't figured out how to access the sample audio files on my iPad. I don't think it's a problem with the files; it think its my lack of know how on how to get them to work.

I would love to actually do this the way it is meant to be done - with a group of people. Maybe some day.

 

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No walking this week, but lots of excitement!

Its been a crazy, but exciting week since I last posted. I haven't managed to do any walking, but that does not mean I've given up, just that life is in the way for a bit.

Just a quick update on the excitement right now. I'll expand on it more in later posts. Two exciting events interrupted my walking routine.

The first event was a fun filled weekend with some female family members. One aunt, one sister, one daughter, five cousins, and one cousin's daughter, plus me, added up to ten crazy females gathered in one house a week ago today to set out for a crazy adventure the next day.

The second event was one I was not expecting to happen for almost another two months. I became a grandmother!

I'll share more about both these exciting events soon, but for now I just wanted to explain that my walking routine has been interrupted for a week, but that does not mean its over and done with. I'll be back at it again soon.

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Walking - day 1 of week 2

Walked again today. Normal Dawson route. I remembered to start the timer for the walk but I forgot to stop it when we finished walking, so I'm not sure how long it took, but I think it was about 30 minutes.

I had a new walking partner today. Anna's been wanting to walk with me every since I started walking. Today I decided to take her. I told her it was a test to see if she could come again or not. I think she's decided not to come anymore. It was too long for her.

She started out fine and was very entertaining. Here's a sample of the entertainment she provided.

 

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Summary of week 1 of walking and on to week two

Some tweets by friends and acquaintances about their running reignited my desire to run. Realizing I am far from being in shape to run I decided to start walking.

Day 1 - Wednesday, July 3

Starting slow. Walked 20 minutes. Main Street, 10th Avenue, Elmwood Crescent and cut across yard to join into Earle, 8th Avenue back to Main.

Day 2 - Thursday, July 4

Started with a 25 minute walk. Slight route change. Skipped Elmwood and went right to Earle. Went for a second walk in the night with Sarah. Passed by Earle and went right to Midland for the loop. Did it in 40 minutes for a total of 65 minutes walking on day 2.

Day 3 - Friday, July 5

Started the day with a 30 minute walk. Another slight route change. Skipped Earle and went to Dawson.

Day 4 - Saturday, July 6

Started the day again with a 30 minute walk, same route as yesterday.

Day 5 - Sunday, July 7

Didn't walk til late in the evening. Went with Sarah again and did the same Midland route we did last time in about the same time - 40 minutes.

Day 6 - Monday, July 8

Started the day again with the normal 30 minute walk on the Dawson loop.

Day 7 - Tuesday, July 9

Started the day again with the normal Dawson loop and cut a bit of time off. Did the route in 28 minutes 50 seconds.

And that was week 1. A great start!

Today was day one of week two. I didn't get a walk in until late this evening. Walked with Sarah again and did our normal Midland loop. I completely forgot to time the walk but I think it took about 40 minutes.

 

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Trying out Blogsy

I've discovered what appears to be a great app for blogging using an iPad. I have struggled with blogging since my lap top died, over two years ago. I thought that I would easily pick it up again about a year ago when I got my iPad, but I discovered it wasn't as easy as I thought to blog from an iPad. I returned to lamenting the death of my laptop and gave up on blogging - until now.

Yesterday I decided to start blogging about my progress in walking, but I almost quit again before posting my first post! The app that I had downloaded a nice while ago is very frustrating to work with. I decided to go ahead and use it for my first post but to search for something better. That's when i came across Blogsy.

I spent the morning watching the How-to-Videos on their site and becoming more and more amazed. Blogsy appears to be a great app! This is the first of what I hope will be many blog posts that I will create using Blogsy.

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Walking Again

A week ago today I decided to start walking again. I thought that tweeting about my decision and progress might help hold me accountable, so everyday I tweeted how long I walked. Then I got to thinking, that's a bit boring for tweets, and also sometimes I wanted to say more than what could be said in a tweet, so I started thinking about blogging my progress. So, here I am.

It's been a long time since I even visited my blog. My first thought when I logged in is that it is in desperate need of a makeover, but I have no idea how to go about doing a blog makeover from an iPad so that's not going to happen any time soon.  I almost let that stop me from blogging now, thinking I should do the makeover first but I seriously don't know when I'll be able to do a makeover and I didn't want to delay starting to blog, so here goes.

I recently became aware that some of my friends and acquaintances in my community, where I've been living now for almost two years, are runners. I don't know if they've been runners for years or if they just recently started. I learned about their running when some of them tweeted about it. That's what got me thinking about it again.

Back in January 2009 I actually started a blog, called Couch Potatoes to Road Runners http://couchpotatoestoroadrunners.blogspot.ca/ , as a basis for a challenge between some family and friends. In the first post on that blog http://couchpotatoestoroadrunners.blogspot.ca/2009/01/how-this-blog-came-about.html I shared that years before a friend had told me about a walk/run program that she enjoyed and I had tried it for a while and loved it, but didn't keep it up. I thought that getting some family and friends to join me in the challenge in 2009 might help me stick to it, but that didn't work either. In a post on May 11, 2009 http://couchpotatoestoroadrunners.blogspot.ca/2009/05/faithful-in-training-but-not-in.html I shared how I was disappointed in the lack of participation of others and I wrote my last post on that blog May 31,2009. At that time I was still faithfully training and had worked my way up to being able to run for 25 minutes straight without feeling winded. I was pretty proud of that but I think the training petered out shortly after that. 

I did try to start to train to run again once or twice after that but then I finally just gave up. I even tried just walking, but I didn't stick to that either. 

Reading about others close to me running sparked my interest again. I am certainly in no shape to run right now and I seriously don't know if I will work up to that or not.  For now I am content with just walking.  We'll see what happens as time goes on.

NaBloPoMo November 2 - live anywhere

Friday, November 2, 2012
If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

We just moved into our new house in a new community just a little over a year ago and I honestly have no desire to live anywhere else. I finally feel settled.

NaBloPoMo - favorite quote

It's November 1st - the first day of NaNoWriMo and also the first day of NaBloPoMo for this month.  I've been thinking about NaNoWriMo for a while now but I completely forgot about NaBloPoMo until today.

I would really like to do NaNoWriMo but I really don't have the time or set up for it. I did make a start today but it just made me realize how truly impossible it is with my present situation. I may, however, continue to plod along.  We'll see.

Rediscovering NaBloPoMo today gave me some hope when I thought all hope was gone. It gave me a new goal to shoot for, one that I think is a little more doable. These will be far from perfect. There will likely be many spelling and grammar mistakes and much fluff with little substance.  I do this simply for me right now and it's important that I just do it without striving for perfection.  I'm hoping it will help me in many ways. So, here I start.

Thursday, November 1, 2012
Tell us your favourite quotation and why.

I think my favourite quotation is actually a Bible verse - "thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee", from Isaiah 26:3. This verse is my lifeline in every difficulty and struggle that comes my way. The faster I remember to stop and get my mind back on God and to trust Him, the faster I get back my peace back.

My First Book Launch

Well, it wasn't actually my book launch, as I have never written a book, but it was the first book launch that I ever attended. I'm hoping it won't be the last.

I was excited when my dad pointed out to me that one of the people that attended my church in my new community was none other than Newfoundland author, Nellie Strowbridge. I had read her books Catherine Snow and The Newfoundland Tongue and I took advantage of the first opportunity I got to let her know that I was a fan. I was thrilled to get to chat with her about her past books and ones she is working on.  I was really excited when I received an invitation from her publisher saying that she had requested I be sent an invitation to attend the launch of her new book, Maiden From the Sea.

I asked her permission to tape the launch and post it to my blog. She graciously agreed.  It's taken me a few days to get it ready to post.  I had taped it with my phone and needed to edit it before posting it. There were people coughing and moving about and chatting during parts of the taping and I wanted to get rid of that stuff.  I had never edited a video before and didn't have a video editing program and the only thing I had to work on was my phone.  I downloaded IMovie and googled help to learn how to use it and I finally got it done.

Here is the video I put together with clips from the book launch that I attended in Deer Lake May 19.

Yard Tour Part 2

Last post I took you on a tour of our front yard and one side of the house.  This time we'll tour the other side of the house and the backyard.  It really is not an exciting tour at all right now because there is nothing there yet but it will be fun to watch the yard change over the years.  This part of the tour takes place in two videos because I ran out of space on my phone on the first video.  The second video is a little frustrating for two reasons - the wind plays havoc with the sound at times and Anna interrupts often.  Oh well, this is simply for my benefit really so I'm not too worried about it.

Side Yard



Backyard

Come Tour My Yard

We moved into a new house on totally undeveloped property back in August of 2011.  I have some pictures somewhere of what it was like then.  I'll try to find those and post them later. We still haven't done much at all to the property, other than cut down the forest of tall grasses in the back yard.  We do want to develop it but it will not happen quickly.  I've been on a Dave Ramsey kick for a while now and Sheldon is playing along somewhat so it is my hope that we will only make improvements to the property as we can pay cash for it.  We've had a few "discussions" about that so we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I decided that I would like to do a kind of video documentary of what we do with the property over the years so I taped the first part of that today.  This video takes you on a tour of our front yard and along one side of the house. Not much to see there yet but here's what it looks like now.

Gardening With Anna Episode 3: May 7th Update on Plants

Chilly outside but things ares growing inside

Our egg cartons are full of growth!  I have to figure out how to get pictures from my phone on here.  We have been amazed to watch our onions and sweet peas grow.

I started measuring the growth of some of the bulbs because I was so shocked by it.  It's been growing about an inch every 24 hours.  So much fun to watch!  I think the Yellow Onion Bulbs are doing a little better than the Spanish Onion bulbs but they are both doing good.

Our sweet peas and green onions seeds took a while to catch up put the sweet peas are as tall as the onions now.  I need to thin out the green onion seed plants.  The seeds were so tiny we dropped loads in each compartment of the egg carton.  It's funny to see.

Hopefully I'll figure out how to get a picture up or else do another video to show the growth soon.  Fun times!

Our Visit to the Greenhouse and Garden Store

This is a totally unedited video of our visit to the Greenhouse and Garden Store in Little Rapids. Anna was doing great until she found a lady bug. Doing the video was her idea but then she lost all interest in the video when she found the lady bug. We will definitely be going back there again, probably a few times throughout the summer to see the development of the gardens.
 

Greenhouse and Garden Store in Little Rapids!

I am so excited!  I just discovered that I have gardening help close by! I have been combing the web for gardening info and I just discovered that there is a Greenhouse and Garden Store very close by!

Check out the Greenhouse and Garden Store website. The title on their opening page tells me this is the place for me - "A Green Haven for Amateurs and Pros".  I fit into the first category. I was hoping to find some workshops scheduled soon but there aren't any posted for this season yet, just some info about past workshop, which looked great.  There's also a note on that page about a newsletter so I signed up for that right away. I wish they had links to their past articles on their gardening tips page so I didn't have to wait for the first newsletter to start learning from them.

Also check out the Greenhouse and Garden Store Blog. The description here says that they have demonstration gardens that you can walk around in for ideas.  We will definitely be visiting there soon, and maybe we'll do a short video while we're there.

The Greenhouse and Garden Store Facebook page seems to be the place for up-to-date information so of course, I've like that too.

It appears the only thing that is missing is a Twitter account, but maybe I just haven't discovered that yet.

There just might be a nice garden in my yard yet!

Gardening with Anna Episode 1

Maybe a garden finally?

We moved to a new house in a new community at the end of last summer.  Our house came with much more land than our old house so I’m hoping to finally be able to have a real garden!
One thing though, there is absolutely no landscaping done to the land.  I’ve been trying to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  It’s a good thing in that it’s an open slate for us to do with as we please, but it’s a bad thing in that it needs so much work to do anything with it. 
I am, however, determined to do something with it. It will be a slow gradual process and I’m hoping to document the progress here on my blog, so hopefully there will be new life breathed into this dead blog.
I am a real green horn at this but I am determined to learn.  I recently discovered a site that I’m hoping will help me with that.  GrowVeg.com has lots of information about growing vegetables and also has a garden planning program that allows you to draw up a plan for your garden.  It seems like a really neat program.  I’ve signed up for the free trail and have started a garden plan.  I’ll share more about that in a future post.
I’d love to find a program like GrowVeg for flower and shrub gardening.  There are some flowers and trees included in the GrowVeg site but not enough to plan a nice flower garden. 
I’d also love to connect with other gardeners from my province and my specific community area so that I can learn from them.  They are the people that can be a real help because they know what works for here.
That’s what’s on my mind presently.

A Challenge for you for 2012 - Commit to spending more time reading the Bible in 2012

I'd like to challenge YOU to commit to spending more time reading the Bible in 2012.  


I presented the same challenge January the 1st 2011.  I also offered a side challenge to commit to reading the Bible through, not necessarily all the way through in 2011, but however long it took.  Did you take up either challenge?  If so, how did you fair in meeting your challenge?  Are you still working on that goal?  If you struggled or gave up, don't knock yourself out for it.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get to it again.  You don't have to start right from the beginning again if you don't want to.  Start where you left off and keep going from there.


Last year I shared that in the past my kids and I have used a chart, something like this one http://www.matthewweathers.com/year2006/images/Bible_Reading_Record.pdf to help us work towards the goal of reading the Bible through.  Print it out, fold it and tuck it into your Bible and mark of the chapters as you read them.  No requirement to read a certain amount or in a certain order, just mark of each chapter as you read it.  You'll be able to see at a glance if there is something you haven't read yet and need to make a special effort to read.  You'll feel so proud of yourself when you finally have all the chapters marked off, even if it does take you years to do it.  :)


If you have an Iphone, Ipad, or just about any other smart phone or tablet you can download an app to help you track your Bible reading.  My favorite app is the YouVersion Bible app.  You can access the Bible in a number of different versions and you can also access a number of different Bible reading plans.  I like to use the Whole Bible plans because they actually take you through the whole Bible.  When you choose a plan to follow you are given a portion of scripture to read each day and as you finish each portion and click to proceed to the next portion the app checks off the portions you have read.  You can easily go slower or faster than suggested by simply reading more or less.


If all you have is a computer or laptop, you can also use YouVersion at http://www.youversion.com/.


If you are interested in learning more about how to use the appor site, I'd be glad to help with any questions you might have.  If you'd like someone to challenge you or hold you accountable to keeping going, I'd be happy to pray for you and encourage you.  I would love to help you get into the Word of God.


Since doing the Bible in 90 Days Challenge the summer of 2010, Bible reading has become even more of a normal part of my life than it was before.  I had been reading small portions of the Bible most every day before that but doing the challenge helped me realize that I could actually fit in reading bigger portions of the Bible every day.  I became so used to doing that that I continued reading bigger portions of the Bible in 2011 and actually made my way all the way through the Bible 3 times in 2011.  I did most of my Bible reading on my Iphone using the YouVersion Bible app following Bible reading plans available in the app. I went through the Bible In 90 Days Plan first, but it took me a little more than 90 Days to complete it.  I then did the Chronological Reading Plan, which was set up to be done in a year but I read more than one days allotted reading each day and completed it in about 4 months.  Then I did the Historical Reading Plan and did the same thing.  I've started following the Life Journal Reading Plan for the beginning of this year.


I sure hope you will commit to spending more time reading your Bible in 2012.  It is something that will change your live forever.

Trying out an iPad

My sister is visiting and I'm trying out her iPad. I like it!

Teacher Tipster

Came across a really neat site today - TeacherTipster.com. Great ideas explained with videos and sometimes including printables.  Here are some of my favourite:

Parts of a Story Song Video - Parts of a Story Poster

The Clock Song -  Clock Song Poster - Set The Clock Sheet (to be kept in a sheet protector so that it can be written on and whipped clean to use again and again

Lots  more videos with fun tips on the TeacherTipster Videos page and lots of great fun printables on the TeacherTipster Printables pages

As the TeacherTipster is a grade one teacher and Anna is presently working on grade one goals I intend to make good use of this site.

Grey Hair and Hair Colouring

Why do people stress so much about the colour of their hair?

I am getting more and more grey hair, but I don't care.  I never did care, but I've cared even less since the day, many moons ago, when my first girl told me that she liked the sparkling hairs that I had.  I didn't have many at all at that point but I loved how she described them.  Then I found this verse Proverbs 16:31 "The silver-haired head is a crown of glory".  I intend to wear my crown proudly when I finally receive it.  :)

I have never died my hair, and I don't think I ever will.  My hair is quite dark, but I see more and more light hairs showing up all the time.  It does not cause me one bit of stress.  My hair always has been and always will be it's natural colour. I have never understood why anyone would want to change their hair colour.  I've always been of the opinion that God knows best in that department and I'm not going to mess with it.

So, while others may sit around and lament about the grey hairs showing up, or their roots showing through, I rest easy and take things as they come.

My Baby is Reading!

She turns 6 this month and she's already a pretty confident reader.  I love it!  I've really enjoyed watching her learn.  I feel blessed that I have the privilege of homeschooling her and watching her learn.

How did she learn?  We didn't follow a structured reading program but instead we took advantage of all kinds of different things that came our way.

We read together lots. And lots.  We made regular visits to the library to stock up on books.  We read all different kinds of books. Sometimes I'd point out the words as I read.  If there were repeated phrases I would encourage Anna to help me "read" those repeated phrases.  Sometimes we'd read picture books with just a word or two a page and Anna would practice "reading" them after we'd read them together a few times.  I was always quick to help her if she forgot a word.

Anna loved playing on Starfall.com.  I let her wonder around the site as much as she wanted and she became more aware of the sounds of letters.  We printed off some of the booklets for some of the stories on the site and she practiced "reading" them after we had read them with the computer and on our own lots.

Gradually I watched her grow more interested in words and she would point out words that she recognized.  I decided it was time for her to try reading a Young Readers Bible that we had in our shelves.  Each story was 6 pages long with a few sentences on each page.  I'd read her a story one day and the next day she'd read that story to me, with me quickly supplying any word that she didn't immediately recognize.  I had to help her less and less as we worked our way through her special Bible.  She actually finished reading the whole book this month and she is so proud of herself.

All the while we continued to read lots of different books together.  As I noticed that she was gaining more confidence and recognizing more words I started making sure that some of the library books we brought home were ones that she could easily learn to read on her own - some picture books with a few words per page, some easy readers, etc.  I always read a book to her at least once before I asked her to read it to me and I was always quick to supply any word that she didn't immediately recognize.  She didn't realize it but she was reading more and more on her own and needing less and less help.

When she was really comfortable with a book I encouraged her to read to her dad and her older siblings, to show how good she could read and also to share some of the fun books we were reading.  This helped build her confidence even more.

She finally realized she could read one weekend when we had friends over and she came running out of the room exclaiming to us that she had just read a book to her friend in her room.  Her friend, who's a couple of years younger than her, was pretty proud of her too.  It was so fun to see her exclaim that she could read!  She'd been reading for quite a while, but she didn't realize it until then.

I've been keeping a list of library books that she's learned to read on her own and she now has over 20 books on that list.

What a joy to have been able to witness this accomplishment in her life!

How Do Homeschool Graduates Fare?

That's what's been on my mind lately. Part of the reason it's been on my mind so much is because I've been reading glowing reports from homeschooling friends on Facebook.  Homeschooling friends from right here in my province.

One friend just attended a convocation service where her child received a Master's of History degree.  Another friend just attended her child's White Coat ceremony, celebrating acceptance into med school.  Another friend reported that her child received a $1000 scholarship from his college.

These children were all homeschooled right here in my province.

Just like public school graduates, not all the homeschooled graduates traveled the academic route.  One homeschooled graduate has traveled the world on modeling contracts.  Another has traveled the world on music related contracts.  Another is a professional fire fighter.

All these children are from different homeschooling families in my province.

I'd say homeschool graduates, for the most part, fare just fine.

Of course, like public school graduates, there are those that have their struggles.  After all, homeschooled graduates are humans, just like public school graduates.

Resuscitation Attempt

It's been a while...a long, long while.  I was starting to wonder if there would ever be life here again, but, inspired by Alex's NaBloPoMo post I am making a resuscitation attempt, I guess we'll see how successful it is.

While I haven't posted in a while, I have written many posts in my head, most of them offering reasons, excuses, contributing factors for the lack of posts.  There are many factors.  We finally moved in August.  We had been anticipating the move since November and it finally happened in August.  I felt like my life was kind of in limbo from November to August waiting for the move to happen.  August was taken up with packing and moving finally.  In the process, my laptop crashed again and this time my attempts at reviving it failed.  I was so busy with moving that I didn't really have much time to think about it but when we finally settled in our new place I started to miss my laptop.  I finally got a desk top set up but I don't like the set up.  It's very uncomfortable so I spend as little time as possible at it.  Those are some of the reasons for my absence.

I really started thinking about blogging, and writing in general, again as November approached.  Like Alex, I have participated in NaNoWriMo in the past and I was hoping to do it again this year but the horrible set up for computing was keeping me from committing.  Still, I couldn't quite give up on the thought.  When I read Alex's post I decided to follow her example and skip NaNoWriMo this year but to give the NaBloPoMo a try, sort of.  I've only quickly perused the NaBloPoMo site and from what I can gather they give you a daily prompt to post about.  I doubt I will be using the daily prompts, though I may from time to time.  My goal is simply to try to get back into the habit of blogging by posting every day during the month.

So, let's see what happens with this resuscitation attempt.  Let's see if I can bring life back into this blog.

The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge by Ian Wilson

Even though I don't presently have any 8-12 year olds in my house, I jumped at the chance to receive a copy of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge by Ian Wilson to review. A drawing factor for me was the fact that the author is Canadian and I love to promote Canadian authors. I also have an almost 6 year old and have shared books with her before that were geared towards older children.

When I got the book I decided it was probably a bit too much for my almost 6 year old right now but I will probably share it with her in a few years time.  I decided to read through it myself at this time, but I have to admit that I struggled with getting through the book.  I found it a little tedious at times.  I don't know if an 8-12 year old would have the same reaction or not.

There were some parts of the book that I did really like - like the fact that one of the main characters is from a homeschooling family.  That was a nice surprise.  I don't remember being told that before I read the book but it definitely made me more interested in the book.  There are few books that I have found that have a homeschool connection.

I also loved that the boys and their dad developed a scale model of part of the railway system.  We have a friend that is into model trains and I thought that he might be interested in sharing this book with his boy when he gets a little older.  I think it's a great way to encourage learning and the development of father-child relationships.

Along with having a Canadian author, this book also has a Canadian setting.  It is set in Ontario and is sprinkled with bits of Canadian history, especially surrounding the CNR.  I don't really know much about the CNR so I'm not sure how much of the details in the book are true and how much are fictional, but it has sparked my interest to learn more about it and to include it in my child's learning in the future.

Homeschool Horizons - Canada's Homeschooling Magazine

Have you subscribed to Homeschool Horizons - Canada's Homeschooling Magazine yet?  The premier edition goes to print in the next day or so and if you haven't subscribed you will miss it because they are only printing to subscriptions.  Hurry and subscribe!

Beautiful Sunset on the Bay

...on the way home to my son's house...

...and my beautiful daughter taking a picture...

...of the beautiful sunset...

More Fun at Margaret Bowater Park

...a view from the other side of the park...

...as the sun goes down for the day...

...my youngest and oldest play tag around one of the big trees...

...Such a beautiful park...

View of part of the City of Corner Brook...

...taken from the Margaret Bowater Park playground...

...where we've been spending some time while visiting...

...such a beautiful spot...

The View Outside My Son's Front Door

A Plan for June - Photos of my province

I am a proud Newfoundlander.  I love my province.  I think every part of it is beautiful.  I have decided that during the month of June I am going to try to post at least a picture a week, and quite likely more than that.  Who knows, I may even end up posting a picture a day.  I will be doing some traveling to different parts of the province during the month of June so it seems like the perfect time for this plan.  My posts may not be limited just to pictures, though.  I may post other posts during the month, too, so that means there may be more than one post some days.  Then again, I may post my other musings on my other blog, JacquelineJabbers.  I guess we'll see what happens.  Either way my main goal here for the month of June is to be sure to share pictures of my beautiful province.

Goal Evalutation and Goal Setting

Well, I missed posting a few days this month.  Totally forgot about posting yesterday!  I thought about it when I went to bed but it was already after midnight so I didn't bother to try to post.  That's really the only day that I didn't post willingly.  The other day or two that I missed was because of the blogger problems.  Soo...while I didn't actually accomplish my goal of posting every day in May, I technically only missed posting one day when I could have posted, so that's not bad.

Time to think of a new goal.  I like having something to work towards.  I've been doing great posting daily to my 365 Days of Children's Books blog for 5 months now!  I'm pleased about that but I'd really like to do more with this blog.  I'm not satisfied with the nothing posts that I've been doing this month.  I need to work on having posts that are actually worth posting.  That may mean posting less so that I spend more time preparing the posts.  Hmmmmm...going to have to give that some thought.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

Budgets are Biblical

Proverbs 10:4 "He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich."

That's what's on my mind tonight.

It doesn't take long to become spoiled

Last month I had over 2000 visits at my 365 Days of Children's Books Blog.  The last couple of months before that I was averaging about 1000 visits a month and was thrilled with that.  I was shocked to have 1000 visits before last month was even half way through and hoped, but doubted, that I would hit 2000 and was thrilled when I did.  This month I was once again excited to hit 1000 visits around the half way point and was pretty confident that I would hit 2000 visits again, but traffic has been slow the last week or so and I'm starting to think I might not hit the 2000 mark.

Funny how I was so happy and content with 1000 visits a month until I hit 2000 visits a month, and now I am disappointed at the thought of not getting 2000 visits this month.

It sure doesn't take long to become spoiled.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

Good reading material

I got my hands on Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book. Really enjoying it!  Learning lots.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

My girl is growing up

Last year she needed me to help her get into the swing at the playground and she needed me to push her. Today she didn't need me at all. It was a bittersweet moment.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

Home selling hassles

An appraiser is coming to appraise the house tomorrow. I plan to not be around. I hate this process.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

Fun New Blog by a Newfoundland Author

Tina Chaulk has started a new blog, Never Eat a Dinosaur, to share ridiculous things she says to her children, and she invites the rest of us to join in the fun by sharing our own "Never Eat a Dinosaur" moments.  During the month of May she is running a Never Eat a Dinosaur contest in which the winner will receive a $50 electronic gift certificate.  The winner will be randomly selected using Random.org and there are lots of simple ways to get your name in for the draw.  Be sure to check out the contest page for details.

Newfoundlander on Top Chef Canada

I am so proud of Todd, the Newfoundlander on Top Chef Canada. He is really doing us proud. Way to go Todd!

That's what's on my mind at the moment.

Living with poor Internet coverage

I don't know how people live with poor Internet coverage. Well, actually it's poor cell coverage more so than poor Internet coverage. I've been at my eldest son's house the last two nights and he doesn't have an Internet connection here. There is also very poor cell service. It comes and goes and drives me crazy! I can't wait to get back to good coverage.

That's what's on my mind today.

Just get it done!

I just spent quite some time starting a post and then erasing it and then starting again and erasing again, and so on. That's bad enough when I'm wring from my laptop but even worse when I'm working from my phone. Sure wish I'd done this earlier today when I could have used my laptop. But I didn't and now I'm stuck having to use the phone and having the dual frustration of using the phone and not knowing what to write. I give up! This is as good as it gets today. I think my brain took the day off

That's what's on mind at the moment.

The Most Important Question

Have you heard that the Rapture is happening tomorrow, May 21, 2011?  That is the claim of a group that runs the WeCanKnow Website.

I think they are right - partly.  The rapture may happen tomorrow. Then again, it may not. I do believe that it will happen some day, that is the part I think they are right about.

I think the most important question for us is not "When will the Rapture happen?" but "What is my personal relationship with God?"

That's what's on my mind today.

It is important to read carefully

Second post for today but I had to share a post I just posted on my wordpress blog - Skimming Google Reader Causes Confusion.

Progression, not Grade Level

I'm still enjoying the Schoolhouse Expo.  Great sessions today so far with Kim Kautzer and Molly Green.  Kim  talked to us about the importance of helping our children learn to write well and gave us lots of great tips and information.  Molly talked about the importance of teaching our children to be fiscally fit.  I got some great tips from both presenters.

My favorite thought so far today has been one from Kim Kautzer when she said that we ought not to concern ourselves with what grade level our child is working at but we ought to be concerned with whether they are showing progression in their learning.  Great advice!

That's what's on my mind at the moment.

Yikes! I almost forgot!

I was just getting ready to head to bed and I suddenly realized I haven't posted here today.  This will definitely not be anything interesting or well put together.  Simply a hurried post so that I will actually have a post for today.  Isn't that horrible?  Is it really worth it?  I'm not so sure.

I don't think I could have picked a crazier, more busy month to decide to post here every day.  What with renovations for the upcoming move, preparations for the upcoming homeschool conference, trying to take in as much as I can of the Schoolhouse Expo on line conference, and then of course there's the normal everyday stuff of being a housewife and homeschooling mom.  Really makes for some crazy days.  Not sure why I decided to pick this month to try to get into the regular routine of posting here every day.

That's what on my mind at the moment.

Enjoying the Schoolhouse Expo!

Though it makes for some crazy days, I really enjoy the Schoolhouse Expo.  My fingers have been flying taking notes and at one point today my little one asked me if I was talking to my friend because I was audibly agreeing with the speaker about some point.  Little One is no stranger to talking to people on Skype so she thought I was having a two way conversation.  She can't wrap her head around the fact that I can hear them but they can't hear me.  Thankfully she was pretty good today about keeping herself occupied so I could take in most of the sessions.

There were so many great sessions today!  I really enjoyed Susan Wise Bauer's session on teaching writing.  Though the session was geared towards teaching writing at the highschool level, I still gleaned things from it to use with little one now.  Got lots of great ideas to use with Little One in Marie Rippel's session on teaching spelling and also in Carol Barnier's session on learning styles.  Such great speakers!

My brain is rather addled trying to take it all in and I'm looking forward to going over the notes and handouts later to get more from them.  I'd love to write more about it but sleep is calling and tomorrow's another busy day.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

What a day!

Been dealing with a little one that is not feeling number one and I've been trying to take in as much of the Schoolhouse Expo as I could so I'm feeling a little worn and torn at the moment.  I'm off to cuddle with my little one for a bit.  I might not make it back so I have to get my post for today in while I can.

That's what's on my mind at the moment..

Tomorrow is the first day...

...of the Schoolhouse Expo!  I can't wait!  I sure hope I can get DH to keep little one occupied so that I can give the sessions my full attention.

I was checking out the door prizes for the event the other day.  What a lot of stuff!  I was lucky enough to win three prizes last year!  It was pretty exciting.  I love how they do the door prizes.  At the beginning of each session they post a link to a form for you to fill in with your name and email address.  Once you submit it your name goes in for the draw for the door prize for the session.  Also, after sessions sometimes they do special prize quizzes.  They ask questions about the session or the speaker or about Schoolhouse products and you have to answer in the chat box of the session.  Before the give the question they say that the "nth" person to answer will win and if you're lucky enough to answer at the right time you win.  I actually won one of my prizes that way last year.  It's so much fun!

One of the door prizes that I'm particularly interested in this year is the Visual World Geography.  I've never heard of it before and it sounds very interesting to me.  There's other prizes that caught my eye too and I will be spending more time checking them out when I get the chance.

If you were smart and got your ticket to the expo already, you are one of the lucky ones because the live sessions are sold out!  If you have your ticket, don't forget to sign on for the sessions so that you will get a chance for the prizes.

If you missed the chance to get a ticket to the live expo you are not totally out of luck.  You can still purchase the Expo to Go.  Unfortunately that doesn't give you a chance at the door prizes but you do get some free gifts with your purchase. It's also still worth your time to check out the door prizes.  You just might find something that interests you and might be something you'd like to purchase for your homeschool.


That's what's on my mind tonight.

Missing posts and my resulting adventures.

My attempt to post here every day in the month of May was thwarted by bloggers unexpected troubles.  Late in the evening on the 12th I tried to log in to do my daily post but was greeted with a page that said there was trouble in blogger land.  I wish I had thought about taking a screen shot of the page, but I didn't.  I was bummed.  I kept trying to get in to no avail.  Even the next day I couldn't get in.

Panic struck! What was I going to do?  I needed to blog!

I needed to blog not only for this blog but also for my 365 Days of Children's Books Blog.  I've been making daily posts there since the first of the new year.  Luckily I had managed to post my daily post there on the 12th before bloggers trouble started so I was safe for that day but I couldn't miss a day.  I had to do something!

Then I had an idea.  I headed over to wordpress.  I knew that I had started a wordpress blog a long time ago but I couldn't remember the name of it or how to get into it so I decided to just sign up for a new blog.  My main concern was my Children's books blog so I set that one up first.  I got a blog set up there with the same name no problem.  Then I figured I may as well set one up for my jabberings too.  That's when I found out what my old wordpress blog was called.

I tried to set up a blog at wordpress with the same title as this blog only to find that I had already done that many years ago, before I started this one actually.  That one, however, I had set up specifically to share about my journeys through the Bible.  I only lasted there a couple of month.  I stopped posting there when I started this blog.  I wish I could get back into that blog but I can't yet discovered how to access it.  I haven't entirely given up hope though.  If I do manage to access it I may revive it in some form.  We'll see.

Because I couldn't get a blog with the address I wanted and I really wanted to make a post so as not to miss a day and blogger was still down, so I set up a new blog with a slightly different name - Jacqueline Jabbers.  That's where you'll find my post for the 13th.

I thought about moving that post over here, and I may still do that yet, haven't quite decided, but I'm leaving it there for now.  Nothing exciting about the post it just talks about my need to blog and why I had to start a new blog over there.

I had thought about double posting to the blog there and here, and doing the same with my children's books blog in both places, but I wasn't sure if that would be a good thing to do or not so I asked some people that I thought would know.  They advised me against it so I'm going to follow there advice and not double post.  Now, however, I have to decide what I'm going to do with the blogs over a wordpress.  I do want to learn how to use wordpress, partly because I just love learning new things and partly so that when someone asks me about it I can help them.  I've had people ask me about wordpress before but I couldn't help.  I'd like to be able to.  I figure there's nothing wrong with learning how to use both platforms, but I have to figure out what exactly I want to use those blogs for.  I have some ideas so we'll see what happens.

That's what's on my mind today

Homeschoolers and socialization

Why is it that people automatically assume that if you are homeschooling your kids are going to miss out socially and turn out to be social misfits?  I know an awful lot of homeschoolers who prove the exact opposite.  They are some of the most social and well adjusted people that I know!  Sure, there probably are some homeschoolers that struggle socially, but there are also public schooled children that struggle socially.  A lot of the time it's personality, not schooling, that causes the struggles.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

The Roller Coaster of Life

Life has it's ups and downs.

I was disappointed yesterday to receive an email from the editor of our local paper, The Nor'Wester, saying that he had to cancel my column to help free up funds to hire a summer student.  I had been doing a weekly column highlighting children's books written by Newfoundland authors.  He invited me to contact him again when the summer is over.

I was excited today to have James Rumford visit my 365 Days of Children's Books blog and leave a comment on my post about his great book Calabash Cat and his Amazing Journey.

It doesn't take much to get me down - and it doesn't take much to get me back up again.  Such is the roller coaster of life.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

Just one week away...

....seven more days...until Schoolhouse Expo!  Yeah!  I can't wait!

That's what's on my mind at the moment.

Mommy Memories

I don't know why but I've been having lots of mommy memories lately.  I'm privileged to be the mom of four wonderful children, three of whom have grown into wonderful adults, and one that still has a way to go but thinks she's there already at just 5.  :)  The last few days I've been thinking back to the baby and toddler days of each of my children.  I've found myself sitting with a goofy grin on a lot as I remember all the precious moments.  My heart is warmed.  Sure there were bad times, but the good far outweighed the bad.  I am so blessed.

That's what's on my mind today.

Money Matters

Recently a friend of mine started talking about Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and their thoughts on money and life matters. I had heard about Dave Ramsey before from some online blogs but didn't know much about him.  I hadn't heard about Dan Miller before.  I liked a lot of what my friend was telling me about them so I decided to do some research.  I discovered that they both had podcasts available through iTunes so I have been faithfully listening to Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller for a couple of weeks now.

I think my husband thought I was crazy for listening to them at first.  Correction, I know he thought I was crazy.  He thought that before I started listening to them, but that's beside the point.  He's been on holidays the last two weeks and he's been doing some work on our house so he's been subjected to hearing some of the podcasts whether he liked it or not.  I'm glad it worked out that way.  He got to listen in without me asking him to and without having to actually admit that he has been listening in.

We've been married over 20 years and have never seen eye to eye on money matters, or most anything else, truthfully, but I think our money problems have been the worst of it. I am not a spender at all. I've been wanting to get a handle on our money for 20 years, but we can't seem to work together on it at all.  Over those 20 years there have been two distinct times, about 10 years apart, when I remember seriously trying to work at getting a handle on our financial situation but failing miserably because he wasn't with the program at all and wasn't interested in working at it.  I couldn't do it alone.  I quit.  It hasn't been a fun 20 years.

Tonight I listened as he talked about money matters for about an hour with the friend that first got me interested in Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller.  Is there hope for the future?  I sure hope so.

That's what's on my mind tonight.

It's Conference season!

All across Canada, and the United States too I think, there are homeschool conferences happening.  I'm reading about it all through my friends blogs and facebook pages.

I spent some time today working on some things for our provincial homeschool conference which is coming up June 17 & 18.  I love this time because it means I get to see homeschoolers from across our province.  We are a very small and spread out homeschool group and I think this time to get together is so important.

I'm also looking forward to the Schoolhouse Expo online homeschool conference which starts May 16, just 11 days away!  I love that conference because I get to connect with an even bigger group of homeschoolers and they are from all around the world!

That's what's on my mind today.

Teaching opportunities just pop up

Today while reading with my little one I noticed that the title of the section of the book we were reading was written with alliteration.  We had started another book earlier in the week that also had alliteration in the division titles for the book and I had pointed out to her the fact that the words in the different section all started with the same letter and we chatted about it for a while and had some fun saying them.  When I noticed it again today I decided to introduce her to the word alliteration.  She's only 5 but she loves new words so I figured I'd give her another one.  Today I reminded her of the alliteration in the other book and we chatted about it and had some fun again.  I don't expect her to totally grasp the idea or remember the special name for it yet but she may just surprise me next time we come across it.

I love taking advantage of natural learning moments like that.  I wish that I had taken the initiative to journal about all the times it's happened to us.  She's learned so much that didn't come from planned out teaching lessons.  Actually, the few teaching lessons that I've planned out for her have turned out anything but stellar. It's these natural learning moments that have really boosted her knowledge.  

I wouldn't have known anything about these moments if it wasn't for homeschooling.  I was a teacher in the public school system before I started homeschooling my children.  I thought that learning could only take place in a very structured environment with a very well laid out plan.  Man had I missed the boat!  I'm so glad that I've discovered how natural and enjoyable learning and teaching can be.

That's what's on my mind today.

How do I want to record the books I've read?

I've been struggling with how I want to go about keeping a record of the books I read.

I love to read, but I don't always get the time to read that I'd like.  I have a 5 year old that I'm trying to homeschool and a house I try to keep in order.  Add to that the fact that I have a husband that hates to read and thinks reading is a waste of time so I try my best not to read too much when he's around.  Doesn't leave me with much time left to read.  I do, however, squeeze it in whenever I can.

A few days ago I actually set up a Reading Log page on my blog and made a list of the books I could remember that I've read, or started, so far this year.  I'm debating with myself as to whether to leave it at that or do more.  Should I do a blog post about each book giving a short synopsis of the book and my thoughts on it and then link that post to the book title in the list or should I add that information to the Reading Log page somehow?  I can't seem to make up my mind, and in the mean time I'm doing nothing.

I read a very interesting blog post about that just yesterday - And this donkey died because....  I'd never heard of the "medieval logic dilemma" that he describes and I thought it was pretty funny.  He used it to make a very good point.  If you are trying to make a decision and you can't make up your mind so you just don't do anything, then you are still deciding on something - your deciding to do nothing, and really that's not going to get you anywhere.

That's about where I am in trying to figure out what to do about recording the books I read - doing nothing but thinking about it.  It's soon going to be time to make a different decision and actually do something.


And that's what's on my mind today.