Homeschool: Helping A Friend Get Started

 

I've been at this homeschooling thing for 27 years, since Nate was five years old. I have two official years to go, since Kyle will start 11th grade this fall.

I still love homeschool. The chance to spend time with my kids learning has been awesome! I've graduated five of my six kids, taught one of my grands for a year, taught co-op classes. It's been a hard and wonderful all at the same time.

Today, I get the privilege of helping a young mom from my church start her journey. I'm going to talk her through the paperwork required by our state, and encourage her in anyway I can. She has wild and crazy days ahead, but it's going to be filled with so much goodness, too.

Our paperwork consists of a notarized affidavit attesting to certain things, like that they are receiving regular medical, dental, and vision care. It attests that no one living in the home has been convicted of crimes against children. We also must write objectives for each child for each subject. This is easier than it sounds.

Today, I will also be turning in Kyle's evaluation from this past school year. 

Homeschool kids are like any other kind of kid when it comes to schooling. They have subjects that are hard for them, they have subjects that are easier for them. They have natural gifts in certain areas and not in other areas. Everyday though we have the privilege of being diligent to get our work done, easy and hard. Some days there are tears, and somedays a lot of laughter.

I highly recommend this book for homeschool families, especially those just getting started!                                                                  

Not being tied to a school calendar allows us to set the pace of our school at home. Some friends do four day school weeks, and go longer through the year, some school year round with longish breaks in the winter, and summer. We take the summers off, and a week at Thanksgiving and three weeks at Christmas and New Years, and random days through out the school year as needed.

This next year Kyle will be working on some CLEP courses to start earning college credits. They will also count as his high school credits in those subjects. We hope that between these last two years of high school he can earn all or most of his general education credits for college, and graduate high school with an associates degree. That would mean also that if he decides to do college, he'll start as a junior and get to do all the fun classes related to his degree, as all the basics will be behind him.

Photo from a trip to Philadelphia with the cousins who also homeschool! (2013)

Well, I need to get going. I hope you have an excellent day friends!

Ideas For The Fourth Of July

 

We always celebrate Independence Day, and this year we will celebrate it with more understanding of how our Founding Father's intended for us to be free, and how fragile freedom can be sometimes.

We always have good food, and I try to do something fun. Here are some cute ideas I found. I'm definitely going to do the first one!

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Unless it is a rainy day, we are almost always outside for most of the day. Tim is trying to get the pool ready to use because this weekend is going to be a hot one!

I still like to decorate for the fourth and though my decor is more in line with my style, I found these cute ideas.

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I hope whatever you do, and where ever you might go that you'll get to see some fireworks this weekend!

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What are your plans for Independence Day?

Weekend

 This weekend was all about the pool. It's quite a process in our township to get permits, have inspections. Well, the inspections will come after the pool has been fully installed and the electric is hooked up for the pump. 

We are so thankful for friends with equipment and friends who are willing to put in a very long day in the heat to help us get the pool put up!

When we bought our home 20 years ago, there was a pool (it was a mess so we took it out) in this spot. So this was the natural place for us to put it. Our friend graded the space, and added the sand.

Kyle and his friend Daniel helped level things out. They worked  hard, too. Kamryn helped also.

View from our deck.

This is what it looked like at the end of Saturday.

Yesterday afternoon, Wes and Kyle and Kamryn helped Tim get the sand tamped down, and the liner in. Then you add about an inch of water and smooth out the wrinkles on the bottom of the liner.

This is where it's at this morning. Obviously needs more water, and it needs the top rail.  We are going to pick up a pool ladder we found on Marketplace. Just what we want safety wise. 

We eventually will get a deck built on to the pool, but for now this style ladder will do the job!

The hot weather has moved in just in time for the holiday weekend and for swimming!

We had church outside again and when we do, we just have one service at 9:00am. We got home early, and we shredded the roast I had cooked in the crock pot for bbq beef sandwiches, I made coleslaw, we had baked beans, and chips. My parents came, and so did Wes and Rachel. While the guys worked on the pool, we gals played Quirkle. It's basically Scrabble, but with shapes and colors. It's fun. Our family highly recommends it!

Since Tim had worked hard in the heat for two days, Kyle and I drove a tool back to our friends house about 40 minutes away, after Kyle had his shower. I treated him to dinner at McD's. He likes their Mc Chicken sandwiches which are two for $2.00. He's easy.

This gave Tim a chance to shower, and relax for the evening. He visited with our friend Denny who came over later in the afternoon, and then with our friend Mike, who came by to borrow our mower.

I took Kamryn home after we got back, and that ended her weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house! She's a big helper. I think she has her grandpa's gift of service.

Now we focus on getting my parent addition built. We need to finalize the plan and then find a builder.

How was your weekend?

Good News Friday!

 So much happened this week! Praying for those people who lived in the condo building in Miami and their families. Also of note, with DJT going to the border next week with Gov. Abbott, the VP announced she'll visit the border this week. However, she is not going to the troubled spots, she's headed to El Paso. 

On to the Good News!

There is so much good news! I am happy about the Ivermectin news out of India! Also, I know that it is hard to hear things against the narrative we've always been told through our media and our politicians. If you are unsure about things I've shared do a bit of research on a non g**gle search engine - use Ecosia or Duck, Duck, Go. You'll begin to have access to information that g**gle blocks  you from seeing.

Cottage Garden: Annabelles In Bloom

 

The garden took a beating with a big thunderstorm on Monday, and I need to go out and tie up my Annabelle Hydrangea. 

These come from my Annabelle bush across the creek on our property. They are under a mulberry tree and were some what protected.

A nice young friend, who is a gardener gave me two small bushes from his garden several years ago. He was dividing his Annabelles and offered me some. I was very happy to be on the receiving end! 

I love that about gardeners. They are very giving. When I first started gardening, almost all of my plants were from friends' gardens. We are always in need of dividing perennials. I can't tell you how many shasta daisy were divided out to friends from my own garden.

I also save seed every year from my hollyhocks, and my poppies, and I share those as well.

Today when I tie up the Annabelles, I'll also do a bit of deadheading on the roses, and clip some flowers from my daylilies, feverfew, gooseneck loosestrife, and maybe some echinacea. This is why I garden, friends!

Here is an arrangement of roses from my garden last year.

 Still a favorite photo and arrangement. Soul filling beauty.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Answering Questions/Responding To Comments

 You all post such kind comments and often ask questions or make statements in the comments that I'd love to talk with you about but many of you are no-reply commenters and so I am unable to do reply to your emailed comment. Since I moderate all my comments, they come to me first and I approve or delete or just hold them in my comments folder. 

It's on me that I don't think about coming back onto the blog and replying to your comment on the blog in the comments section. Do you ever come back to check? I will try to be more diligent about this.

For today, I thought I'd answer/comment on some of  your comments from the last few weeks.

cityhomemaker - asked me to pray for the believer's in her city, and I have as God has brought you all to mind. There is no mistake that there is a 'dark' spirit there. I think many believer's are waking up to find we've been lulled to sleep in many ways while the darkness has taken hold more and more. My encouragement to you today friend is this, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world." 

ellen - your comment about Fauc* and how "he won't be able to walk down the street" is a familiar phrase and one I completely agree with. When you can see through the emails that he knew for many years that these long used drugs could help people and yet they purposely kept them from people! Whether it was to hurt DJT relection efforts (which we've begun to see the media talk about) or to make money on the 'zine' or both, people will be looking for criminal charges against him.

Beside a babbling brook...I have heard about DJT and Bill O'Reilly doing a tour of cities, and I am fascinated by this. It is a way to go around the media to tell of all the excellent things he did for our nation.

Unknown - don't bother to comment.

Deanna - I did read about Gov. Abbott and found an article on the Texas state government website. You can read it {here}.

ellen - I agree about Unknown. We've all been taught through indoctrination to believe what the government tells us and especially to believe media. Sadly, many will never be able to accept that the ccp has infiltrated our nation and that many, not all, in every area of our government have been corrupted. I'm a proud American and it has grieved me to see it.

Beside a babbling brook...my former New Yorkers have all been here for many years, except one, and she came after her job went away during lock down. She came to work in a ministry here in Lancaster County.

Cheryl - Hollyhock Nigra is such a gorgeous flower. I have lots of seed saved if you'd like some! That's true for any of you. I'll gladly send you seeds!

Vee - The video and information about the FBI involvement has troubled me. Makes me realize that many things they've told us about events in the past have been lies, too! For how many years, is a question I have. 

A Joyful Cottage - I am glad for newfound boldness from some of the Republican party. We've not been happy R's for years, but in a two party system you are stuck. 

Unknown - I'm responding to one of your comments that I did not publish. I do not watch Fox News. I haven't for years. I think they have very few hosts that I would say are truth tellers. I'm sad for you that you think Rachel Maddow and others are telling you truth. They aren't.

Beside a Babbling Brook - This is a new pool and an above ground one at that. I do love an inground pool but this is what we have been given and we are pleased with it. Our grands and our kids will love it for years to come, and so will we.

Linda - I'm just grateful that our family lives close by, most of them anyway! I'm glad they like to get together. We've given our kids autonomy as adults. We recognize that one day, our family with grands, and eventually great grands, maybe so big that we don't see all of them regularly. One day, we may be empty nesters and invited to spend Christmas in Tennessee, or who knows where the family may spread! We will graciously accept invitations to be a part of these celebrations as long as we are able! For now we are working on plans to get an addition built here for my parents to live in. The Amish in our neighborhood would call it a Dawdi Haus or grandfather house.

I hope you haven't minded the Q and A here in this post. I hope to be better at responding in the comments if you come back looking for an answer! Be sure to tell me if you do in the comments. Also, you can set it so your email will show to me when I moderate your comment and I can reply right to your emailed comment. {Here} is an article that explains how to do this. It is fine if you want to stay a no reply commenter, I'll just try to catch you in the comments!

Weekend

Happy Summer!

I hope you had a good weekend. Did you all get to celebrate the Fathers in your life?  We did, plus we celebrated two of the grandgirls birthdays on Saturday! 

I made a huge baked ziti, Rachel made a yummy green salad, and we had garlic bread, Lindsay made scones to go with our local strawberries and whipped cream, Kayleigh brought drinks, and chips, and leftover birthday cake from Kamryn and Klaire's joint birthday party on Saturday. Lots of yummy food.

We also played Quirkle and Skyjo all afternoon on Sunday.

I got my dad a mug that said, "Great Job, Dad! I Turned Out Awesome!" It was appropriate! {grin}You can find it here. Remember the tshirt I bought him last month for his birthday? You can see it here. I'm thankful for my dad and his lifelong love of learning. Even at 82, and some memory issues, he reads, watches the news, and stays up to date with what's happening in the world.

Tim and Nate ended up with fun tshirts from that company, too, and Tim also got a mug, and a new drink cooler to take with him when he works. You can find it here.

Tim always says the only thing he wants is to know his children walk in truth. That is still our goal, and how we will pray for our kids and kids in law. 

Our goal with our adult kids is relationship. We want them to want to come for gatherings and celebrations, and they usually do. They are free to have their own plans, for example Wes and Rachel usually go to Tennessee to have Thanksgiving with his family. They usually get to see Emma and her family, too, while they are there. Lindsay and Joseph sometimes are with his family, and sometimes because we all live close they'll spend time at both. 

This coming weekend I think is the pool weekend. We have had to get permits, and it has to be inspected once its up, but then we're going to want summer to heat up so we can swim!

I'd love to hear how your weekend went? Were you able to be together and celebrate?

Good News Friday

There is also very interesting information coming out about Fulton County, GA chain of custody with the ballots, the Dominion machines in Pennsylvania have a program in them that Michigan's Dominion machines have, and it's not supposed to be there.

More states are visiting Arizona's Forensic Audit.

Information is now coming out that those 'unindicted co-conspirators' from January 6 are actually FBI assets. It seems as if the FBI was involved in the attack on the capitol. This is very interesting.

I hope you have a great weekend, friends!