It's Been Awhile ...

I'm realizing today while reading my friends' posts that it has been quite awhile since I have been able to post something myself.

During this hiatus, we spent a wonderful week in Nags Head with a beautiful house on the beach. Other than the nasty overwhelming vampire-like mosquitoes we enjoyed every moment. The mosquitoes were brought in from hurricane Irene that although left little damage to Nags Head, she left major damage to Hatteras Island and permantly washing out Highway 12 in several spots south of Nags Head. There was also much damage from the return waves on the sound side of the island which caused flooding to the residents and some local restaurants.

We spent an amazingly beautiful day exploring Festival Park and seeing the first Jamestown Settlement. The girls captured most of our pictures with their own cameras, so we have a varied view of all of our adventures.  Here they were repairing the ropes on the ship. The staff told us that they ship actually stayed anchored in place rather than being brought in for the hurricane. The girls thought that was amazing and captured photos of it being repaired.

We spent another couple days exploring the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Aquarium. The rest of the time we spent wandering the beach and collecting shells. The girls brought home four overflowing buckets of shells. We are not sure what they will do with them, but shells are slowly taking over our garage. Maybe we will make a shell garden out back by their play set.

We returned home to find my father not doing so well. He had been battling metastatic colon cancer since his diagnosis in July, but little did we know that this time his battle would be harder than ever. He suffered multiple complications from the chemo treatments and with each cycle we hoped that no new side effects would appear. When we returned he was battling increasing abdominal pains and after a month of doctor appointments and narcotics to control the unknown cause of the pain, he was hospitalized. The next five weeks or so were chaotic and we spent many hours going to and from the hospital and as much time as we could with my father. Thank goodness for a wonderful group of friends who stepped up and spent time with my children so I could spend time helping my parents deal with what would become the hardest task in our lives.

After an extensive exploratory surgery, it was determined that his lymphatic system was draining into his abdominal cavity. We were soon to learn that his type of colon cancer was considered "mutant" and also extremely aggressive. As the doctors explained to us, when there is an extremely aggressive cancer the chemo seems to work much better than normal. In a young healthy person, this can be a great thing. For my father in his already weakened state, the death of so many of the lymph nodes at once caused a chain reaction and essentially the necrotic cells formed clumps (tumors of dead cells) blocking off the lymphatic ducts and causing fluid to back up into his abdominal and chest cavities.

Unknown to us at the onset of this latest diagnosis, we were actually looking at the beginning of the end. It breaks my heart now to sift through the chaos of tests and procedures that he endured hoping to find a solution to his situation. Each test and procedure further weakened him. Sadly at 1:05 am on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 my father took his final breath in his battle. He was a courageous man and continued to think of his family until the very end. I'm thankful my mother could be at his side for those final moments and am thankful that the Lord has brought him home and that he is in a better place, free of pain, free of medical treatments and forever a guardian angel to me and my girls. I love you Daddy!

This picture was actually taken by one of my father's friends on his last visit to Milwaukee. It represents the silly-side my dad didn't often show, but his daughters and grand-daughters saw often. It also represents the last time he was feeling decent as this was about a month before his diagnosis.

I was undecided on whether to post about my dad's passing on my school page, but looking back, I see that his sickness and death has impacted not only our lives but also our schooling. My children have learned first hand how something so small can cause so much pain. They have learned about compassion, prayers, friends helping friends, and so much more. My father's cancer and chemo treatments opened up discussions on how the body works and how medical treatments can change the outcomes (for better or worse). My girls have seen how love grows stronger in times of need and how love has no end. His impending death brought on many discussions with my eldest regarding God, Jesus, death, heaven and other philosophical questions on life. I know this ordeal has changed (and aged) me as I am sure it has done the same to all three of my daughters. You grow up faster than you expect during a time like this.
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With the start of the holiday season upon us, posting will likely be on hold until we get back to our normal routines in January. For December we will be finishing up our first semester and preparing for February testing. It is hard to believe we are almost half done with our school year.

Month One of School...Complete...Check

Whew...is it September already? This summer has flown by and I am not even sure I remember most of it. With everything going on, we have completed the first month and I'm struggling to keep up with new and exciting stuff for the girls.

For starters, I started a one year Montessori training program (fast-tracked from two years so double the learning-double the fun).The more I read about Maria Montessori's theories and principles, the more I know this fits wonderfully with my younger two and it will also be a great addition for my eldest. They activities and materials just add "fun" to the learning process.

Little G is flying through "preschool" and will be in "pre-k" in January. The only thing she is not ahead of the game on is handwriting, but even that is coming along rather quickly. She is constantly asking for "more school work", such a change from her eldest sister. G loves mazes and is overjoyed when ever the dot markers come out. She also loves listening when her big sister R brings out the reading books.

E, who is quickly becoming my prima donna works the hardest each day. She has requested we add the typing module to her school program. Even though typing frustrates her, she refuses to give up. My heart aches while I watch her struggle through some of the activities (really designed for a 7 year-old), but then I'm ecstatic when she jumps for joy at the sight of her "score" when she finishes an activity. The program itself is very fun and I think she is just ultra competitive with herself and has a bit of a learning curve. I'm not sure her tiny hands can always stretch to the keys easily.

E also LOVES math and has just about completed her K program. While she continues to work on the K program, we are completing the 10 assessments for it. So far, she easily scores a solid 100% at each level. If that continues to the last assessment, we may just bump her up to first grade math this month. With her Apraxia of Speech she struggles with phonics and being able to say the sounds in order to "hear" where the sounds are supposed to be. This is supposed to be normal for her condition and I find it is extremely frustrating to her as she is a perfectionist with her school work. She also loves French practice.

R still loves being homeschooled but gets frustrated with some of her subjects. When I gave her the choice last week to go back to public school or continue with homeschooling (she seemed to think that school might be easier) - she chose homeschooling. She loves math, science and reading. She even loves writing (creatively) but when she has to sit down and write out grammar activities, she absolutely abhors school. She will pick a fight with whomever is nearby and throw her pencils and papers in the air in frustration. We are working through these "kinks" and I'm hoping now that we completed "sentence review" that the future chapters will offer a bit more excitement to her lessons. She does enjoy working on the grammar as long as she doesn't have to "write" all the answers. I'm thinking once I get "trained" with the Montessori "language arts" that I'll be able to offer some "fun" alternatives to grammar lessons.

Lately, I have found that going back to a five-day a week program for school is what we really need. Even though I would much rather have the three day weekend, I think the girls need the fifth day to stay motivated. Some mornings, it is still tough to crawl out of bed and jump into school work, but we are making it work. Unfortunately, only E is an early riser - the rest of us could stay in bed until noon if given the chance.

Hopefully after our week at the beach (full of educational science and geography lessons while we play in the sun and water), we'll have some pictures to post and be a bit more organized during the day. That is as long as Hurricane Katia doesn't hit the Outerbanks. We stressed out enough with Irene - but now Katia is expected right about the time we head out. UGH! I'm still not sure why my husband likes to vacation in September...other than the lack of crowds.

Finding Time For It ALL...

Not sure how everything always seems to work out...but it does, doesn't it?  At least it always has and I hope it always will. Have faith everyone tells me...I'm trying.

There is so much going on in our lives right now that I barely have time to breath, but somehow we just keep taking things one day at a time. More like one lesson at a time, one subject at a time, one activity at a time, one battle at a time, one therapy appointment at a time, one doctor appointment at a time and more.

The house is a mess, the dishes are not done, laundry is never caught up. The girls are happy and healthy and still having fun (and being educated). Myself, sometimes I don't know how I survived the day.

Tomorrow is always another day.

Faith, Love and Hope...

The Start of School

We started school this week. Day three and we are all still in one piece. We have also had swim lessons all week which thankfully will end on Friday. I love the daily trips to the pool and am working on my tan, but it does get trying with the almost 3 hour break to our school day.

The girls are loving swim lessons and all three have progressed well. R has learned a number of new strokes and is even working on getting her diving under control. E and G have learned to swim under water and are working on the freestyle strokes. I have also enjoyed my hour chatting with my best bud and with with no children hanging on either of us (as hers are also in swim). It will be a good two weeks of concentrated physical education as all three get a good work out.

Gymnastics starts the new school year this week and E will be moving up to the homeschool group and G will be resuming classes after a summer break. The girls continue to improve in their gymnastic skills and have made a number of homeschool friends (as have I).

Back to actually schooling. I am glad we switched language arts as I find the format for Voyages in English much more to my liking (I'm not sure why I left them after 1st grade-but am glad I went back). R thinks it is too much work but I like the way they really push writing.

We have also been enjoying the American Girl Series and learning about Kirsten during our drives to/from swim. We will be reading Felicity's story from books during the year and the girls want to start Molly once we complete Kirsten. I have found I do enjoy the books on tape for the car ride - it is more soothing than music at times and the children interrupt my thoughts less when they are involved in the stories.

The start of adding in Montessori has worked well though we are still learning the best ways to do things. G also started her formal preschool program and I fear it is too easy. Most of the activities she did this week have been easy and hopefully she won't grow bored as we find a happy medium.

It has definitely been a challenge to work with all three and I will need to find a happy medium with getting work assigned, directions provided and one-on-one work with all three. Today it seemed that everyone completed each assignment too quickly and I had a constant "line" for my directions. We will find a way - hopefully next week when we don't have the swim lessons break and do more activities on the computers.

Small bumps in the Road

We have had a few bumps in our path to school this summer so we have taken a few weeks off.

This past week my eldest spent a week at Camp Hardee (Girl Scouts) down on the Pamlico River about two and one half hours away. She had a fantastic time despite the horribly hot weather and high humidity. Most days hovered around 100 degrees which is hot for North Carolina. She learned how to canoe and spent a ton of time in the pool. My adventurer is already planning her week at camp next year.

We have swim lessons for the next two weeks and will hopefully make a good adjustment to the start of school for third grade, kindergarten and preschool. The girls are excited to get started and have enjoyed watching me prepare all the new Montessori material to incorporate into our school plan.

Curriculum Choices

     As a homeschooling parent in NC, we have our own choices for curriculum and before this year, things were easy. With my eldest, I knew without a doubt that we wanted to follow Charlotte Mason theories in teaching her. At least in an eclectic sort of way as we wanted to increase some of the math and science (things my daughter loves) and for the last three years we have done that.

     As we begin to formally teach the middle daughter I realize that some of the subjects using Charlotte Mason will be harder with her learning style and I would rather not set us both up to fail from the get go. My preschooler has a similar learning style, so I have decided to combine Charlotte Mason and Montessori theories to teach the younger two girls. In some ways I have gone back to square one (on my end) with them and I hope that things go well for us this year.

     I believe that this will be my toughest year as a teacher and mother. Until now we have only had one daughter that we formally taught while providing the younger two with many educational opportunities as they were ready for them. This year, the preschooler has insisted that she have "real" school work and I hope the choices I have made for her school "work" fulfills her dream of school.

     Wish us luck and feel free to come along for the "ride". We will be posting pics of field trips, fun learning activities and whatever else we can think of. Hopefully during all the fun, I will remember to snap some great pics.

     For outside activities, the girls will be continuing with Awana, Sunday school and gymnastics. In addition, R will be continuing with youth musical choirs at church in both singing and tone chimes. Brownies has been a success for my eldest so I believe she will stay with that and E is considering becoming a Daisy. Think of all those cookies they will be selling. Adding speech therapy for the younger two, we will have quite a full schedule again this year. I'm thinking maybe I will need a personal assistant to keep tabs on us.

     The count down has begun...school officially starts July 11th.

Let's try this again...

So it's been almost two and a half years since I started this blog for our homeschool and I have yet to use it. As we head into our fourth year of homeschooling, I will try to update more often and share some of the fun and wonderful things we do. This year we have a third grader, a kindergartner and a preschooler. We have tons of fun stuff in store for the new year and the girls are thrilled to be sharing it all with you. Stay tuned for more.