Pen Pals and Plans

I promise that I will be better at blogging!  

What summer means to me!  Farmin', Hayin', Waterin'! Lovin' LIFE!

Between CRAZY SUMMER life, our "jobs" and my schooling it's been hectic around here.  We are planning to start school on August 12th at our abode, now I doubt we will be in the full swing of it but I want to give ourselves a few weeks to adjust before it hits full throttle.  I have hooked up with a bunch of home school groups lately, on Facebook and through The Family School  and I am loving the support they give, the ideas we get to bounce off of one another and the plans we get to make for the upcoming school year.  Thanks to these groups and some awesomely prepared ladies, we will be involved in an ART group this year, which will meet twice a month (we will probably attend at least once a month), A Genius school (which I am still a little unsure about what exactly it is) once a month or so, and some field tips and play dates (for mom's and kids, cause mom's need some chatting time too!) mixed in there as well. Last year I could only focus on my three little people, I really didn't have time to incorporate other kids, or group activities because we were trying to get this homeschooling thing down (little did I know it's really not about getting it down, it's more about enjoying the journey!), but this year I can see that we need to branch out, to open up and explore a little more. Making time for others and allowing ourselves to grow, experience and take a little time to "smell the roses" is just what we need!

CRAZY FUN SUMMER LIFE!

Work boxes ~One of the groups on Facebook I joined deals with work boxes which I am trying to incorporate into our school days.  If you want to know more about the work box idea by Sue Patrick  check it out. I haven't read the book but I have done a lot of research on this type of a system. More on this later!   

Sometime's penmanship seems like a lost art!

Pen Pals ~Last year I went on a search to find pen pals for my little kiddos.  I read a post about teaching kids to write, and teaching correct letter formatting, and cultural differences through pen pals.  (Not that I remember where the post was :( sorry!) I thought it was a great idea so the hunt began!  I searched high and low, trying to find a legit pen pal distributor or group or club or something!!!  I didn't want to bring some stranger into our lives to later find out they were ax murderer's or something! (joking! but you know it can get creepy out there in cyber world!!!) So I decided to put up a post in one of the groups I am in (I also contacted my cousin who home-schools and lives in a different state, her kids are about the same age and our kids don't really know each other because, well, she lives in a different state and that's just what happens right?!) I had two really cool gals reply to my request for pen pals.  One is from Kentucky and one from Mexico! Two places I have NEVER been (well this particular part of Mexico anyway).  So we will start the year with three pen pal families!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! I may even have one of them be a guest blogger on here, WOULDN'T THAT BE COOL!?! Now we will get our much needed writing in (this typing technology is heck on the writers world that I use to come from) and be able to learn a lot of cool things about places we've never been and people we've never met (well except my cousin's).  We will get to know why they do what they do, how they home school, what they are learning about and perhaps we could even through in a Skype or something to meet face to face, or learn something together!  OH the beauty of homeschooling never ceases to amaze me!

What's new in your world's? What things would you like to see here on Chaos Creek? When do your kids start school, or when do you start homeschooling?  How's your Summer?

WE LOVE COMMENTS!! Thanks for reading! :)

Homeschooling Curriculum

As mentioned before my grandmother sold her home which was just across the street and up a ways from me.  It was a lot harder on us than I had anticipated, all the memories and the great times we shared in that house.  The fact that my little peeps won't be able to just walk over to grandma's anymore is sad!  It was the one thing left that was filled with the memories of my grandpa, I miss that MAN! The new people are very kind but it's so weird to not have that be her house.  I guess we will get use to it as time goes by.  We moved her out (did I mention that 78 year old women have a lot of stuff?!) the weekend of the homeschool convention so we didn't get to go this year!  I was super bummed, but I know what we did was much more important and necessary.  My mom and I and the kids did get to go down to the curriculum part of the convention for a few hours though.  And I purchased my FIRST EVER curriculum!  Hallelujah!!!! I am ELATED to start using this curriculum next year.

WHOA, let me back track for a moment.  We were enrolled in Washington Online's school last year and it was great, the staff was fabulous!! However I wasn't in love with the curriculum (well parts of it) I loved the sign language stuff and I loved the math.  So we decided to enroll in Harmony this year, I have a few friends that used it and liked it a lot.  They offer an options day program where you go to the actual school once a week for classes, but with the changes they made to the program and my busy schedule we decided to just do the independent study.  Check them out! They offer the independent study student's an educational allowance each year so that is why we bought curriculum this year.  FABULOUS PERK! But the besides that perk the curriculum they offer seems outstanding!  We will be able to use Rosetta Stone, and other top notch learning tools.  I am so excited for this year!!

Okay, back to the curriculum that we purchased!  There is a private school (of our same faith) that is relatively close to us that put together a homeschool curriculum.  It's called The Family School,

the concept is to teach like they did long ago, in a one room school house, where all ages learn the same material and each student helped one another.  Last year I struggled with how I was to teach all these differing ages at the same time, in fact it was one of my MAJOR complaints of the whole homeschooling process.  But after running across this and trying a lesson or two I fell in love with what they had to offer.  Of course we will still do our Language Arts and Math and those things that are leveled separately, but we will be able to incorporate a lot more "Family" learning which makes my heart SING la la la!!! We will be using journals and using their system of 4R's research, reason, relate and record. For more about this curriculum you can visit their link above or my Pinterest board.  

So that is our plan for this upcoming school year!  We will use Harmony's math and language arts courses and their Rosetta Stone Spanish course.  We will use Family School for most everything else.  The educational allowance will not only be used for the Family School curriculum but perhaps we will buy an I-Pad or some really neat educational toys, a nice globe, or some of the fabulous books I've wanted to read to them.  The possibilities are endless and the educational allowance is a pretty nice chunk of change so I am thrilled to be getting to use it towards my kids education! 

All you homeschoolers out there, what are you doing differently this year?  What curriculum's are you using? What are you LOVING what are you NOT loving?  

Well Hello again!

Well I am not MIA any longer!  :)  We had a bad bout of Pertussis and a long recovery followed up with a good dose of busy spring and crazy month of JUNE and the continual hack that we CAN NOT SHAKE!  It's been an odd year for us but such is life I guess.  And if you ask me, we shouldn't be sick for at least 5 years due to all the crud we've had this year :)!  Just throwing that out there.

So a lot has happened since I posted last.  For one thing my JO is turned 10!!! I can't believe that 10 years ago they placed her in my arms and I got to meet her for the first time.  She is my old spirit in a young body.  She is one of my best friends and someone I confide in a lot (maybe too much for her age, but not for her spirit).  I love who she is! I love the fire she has inside of her, I love that she has her own opinion and her own way of doing things.  Sometimes I don't love that she argues so much, but secretly I do because I know she fights for truth and right and doesn't let others tell her how she feels!  She is beautiful inside and out and I couldn't be more proud of who she is!  HAPPY 10th MISS JO!  I love you!

We had a baby COLT!  On May 14th our Red Roan gave birth to a spunky, scrawny little Colt.  It is our first baby horse and He is OH SO FUN!  He's packing on the pounds now and doesn't look so silly and awkward.  He is running and crazy and thinks he's as big as his mama!  We finally found a name for him, CHIEF!  Little Chief the baby palomino!  Baby horses are the best! And mom is doing great, for being a first time mother she is protective and instinctive and knows just what he needs.

Other things that have been going on around here.....work, farm, work, water, work, farm, work, water, school, school, school.... :) Yep that about sums it up!  We work from dawn til dark then somewhere in between we find time to do everything else.  I've decided that being busy is better than not being busy at all because when I start reducing my responsibilities in one area I start increasing them in another. Oh well, C'est La Vie! 

I've also discovered my time management skills are much better when my plate is filled.  I seem to better manage my time and keep my priorities straight.  I guess that's the exchange! So here's to my planner app and all the things I have down for the weeks and months to come and all the things I am accomplishing :)

GARDEN!  Yep it's got planted this year, My Grandma helped me put it in this year because she sold her house so she wasn't planting anything and had some plants already started, so she shared and helped me get it all planted.  We planted tomatoes and watermelon, beans, peas, tomatillo, radishes, cilantro, squash, zucchini, Cherry tomatoes, carrots, lettuce and spinach.  Also planted the flowers, killed weeds in the lawn and on the sides of the house and planted some herbs in pots.  It was fun this year!  Last year I skipped the garden (which was ok).  And the year before that with a 2 year old the garden wasn't as fun, but this year the kids were excited and are loving it. We got our first cherry tomatoes, the weather has been a scorcher and we've had awful dry winds so it's been a task to keep the garden properly watered.  Not that I have a green thumb anyway so this weather hasn't exactly been my friend. 

I got a new niece!  We were so sick that I didn't get to see her for a whole MONTH!  But finally  we got to Meet Baby M!  Oh she's so precious and so sweet! And those two sisters of her's are eating her up!  I think my brother is one lucky dude to have so many beautiful women in his life :)!

We went to the cabin!  YAY!  It's so close to home so we don't spend the night much anymore but it's so fun to go up for the day!  We had Jo's party and played cards, ate ribs and potatoes and went on a four wheeler ride!  Always nice to get away even if it's for a moment.  

Summer is here, it's hot and dry, I won't wish it away because it will come soon enough.  I wish however that I could enjoy it longer because soon enough school will be back in session and "life" begins.  I love the feeling of Summer!