I love writing, it has always been my most favorite thing to do. Whether journal writing, or writing a story, bible class material, e-mail, snail-mail, it doesn’t matter. Putting together thoughts onto paper, or onto a computer screen is to me a wonderful way to express thoughts, feelings, concerns, joys or even sorrows Last year I was ready to pull my hair out over the Class subject of writing. I truly wondered if little man would ever learn to write a story. In fact I got so frustrated at his frustration that I literally gave up. Somewhere around January of last school year, I completely ditched writing from the curricular…

I remember clearly staying up until the 11:00 news to see if our schools would be closed due to snow the following morning. ‘Please say Logan County Schools’  became or mantra as we sat if front of the tv. If they didn’t we’d get up early and repeat the process the next morning. And if such a blessed event were to occur, we would bundle up and go out to play in the great white wonder called winter, my self, my 3 siblings and our neighbor Amy who to us was like another member of the family. We had the best sledding hills next door behind my mammaw’s house. If…

I can’t believe it! Today out of nowhere I changed our history curriculum. I loved what I was using, MofH but it just was not working for me. I couldn’t figure out how to get it to fit into our regular routine of things. It took a lot of prep work on my part, it took a lot of time on his. So today I ditched it for a program from Hooked on Phonics called We the People. I only chose it because someone gave it to me, so it was free! It is a recording based program covering early American history. He follows along as it is read. There…

Today we are visiting with our good friends the Cowdery’s in West Virginia. We love this family! Michael and I have watched their children grow up. They are like an unexpected extension of our own family. They live on a 60 acre farm surrounded by mountains. It’s beautiful here. I had anticipated spending this day pretty much just lounging on the couches catching up with  my friend and her daughters and we have been doing that. I anticipated the men would play video games which they did last night. I had not anticipated that my son would get a certain eduational lesson. My friends husband is what you’d call a…

I am involved with a great group of moms!!! The support group is more than just a cooperatives of moms working together to provide extra classes for our children. It is a true support group. We are working to support each other as we walk this road called homeschool. As we walk in this way we are discovering that our lives are not revolved around home school, but rather our home school is revolving around our lives. For me everyday is an adventure! I woke up this morning thinking that I would have my son spend a couple hours with math and spelling. Then I would go and spend the…

In our academy I bear the majority of the educational responsibility. At least that’s what I thought, until today. Generally my husband provides emotional, discipline and of course financial support. He truly supports what we are doing and is in full agreement that this is the right educational choice for our son. I make the decisions regarding curricula,  lesson plans, educational philosophies, learning styles and the day in day out teaching of school.Today I gave Jonathan only 3 assignments because I have a bad chest cold and just couldn’t get through an entire class day. Spelling, Math and piano practice. Spelling and math because I don’t want to get “behind”,…

Thanksgiving. I don’t imagine that there are many Americans who have not observed some aspect of this holiday. It is a day which has been set aside as a day for citizens to offer thanksgiving for the blessings received. It begs the question, “To whom do we offer thanks?”This seems like an obvious duh kinda answer, right? My answer would be, “well yes”If you are a believer in God the creator of the universe then without  a doubt you know to whom you offer thanks for your blessings. But for just a moment think about the irony of this national holiday. We now live in a country that has chosen…

Today was a good day at the academy.  Not everyday is. For me a good day is when J participates in the work with little or no complaining, when we accomplish all of the assigned tasks and he learns at least one new concept. Today all of those happened. In fact he even volunteered to do his reading asssignment while I prepared lunch, rather than play. That tells me he was happy and that he is enjoying the book. He is now reading E.B. White’s The Trumpet of the Swan. We are working on classics this year. He has already read Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. When J is happy…