I found out why and now I can move on

I CAN POST COMMENTS AGAIN.  Turns out that I click on the "remember me" button and it tends to block post ability.  NOW I can post about my G and F again.

I spent yesterday with a father who is considering home school for his daughter. -A- is a girl scout w/ G's troop and a beautiful child. So many changes in the cut backs of their small community school.  It is of course his decision but I hope they do make the home school choice. It would not effect my life but I know it will have a positive impact on -A-. 

I still await the Language Arts books for G, otherwise I would have all the lessons and days planned out until November 5th. 

We are looking into a trip to Purina Farms .  K remembers doing this as a girl scout and wants to take the girls.  We will be doing a field trip with the co-op in September.  That trip will be to the City Museum in St. Louis.  The girls love the city museum and the group rate is a huge savings, additionally, they will see familiar faces.

G is going to do a scrapbooking class during Master's Lyceum and we can use the pictures from these trips so she has a nice supply and choices.

Posting Comments

I am apparently not able to access my google account in order to make comments to friend bloggers.  I do not understand this.  I can follow by friends but cannot post to them.  It is frustrating.

I wanted to tell Kayla congrats on winning the curriculum!  I wanted to let her know that G got the postcard yesterday.

I wanted to tell Leslie so much about the blessings she has received. 

I want to share but it won't let me.

Co-op Meeting was so helpful

We joined up with the local co-op group when we began home school last year.  The group we joined is called the St. Clair County Christian Home Educators (SCCCHE). Apparently there is yet another increase in members this year. It seems there will be about 234 families this year. THAT is families, not children.  I like groups like this because there is a wealth of information and support from the veterans of the group.  As the group grows it is also amazing the additional other talents that come along and the advancement of the web page and enrollment via electronic media is wonderful.  We are on the furthest fringes of our county, which is geographically rather large. The leadership of the SCCCHE emphasizes to members that the center focus of our schools should remain in our homes and not on the group. They encourage participation but not to the extreme of doing it all. 

Last night we previewed a DVD called The Trojan Horse as well.  Our area does not offer public school at home like the video was talking about but I did hear a person discussing it in their district.  I continue to be blessed by living in Illinois. We are certainly free in regards to parent choices and education in our state. That is hard to believe as Illinois is otherwise a very controlling state with lots of government involvement.  For one long state we tend to be ignored in the South and many only think of Chicago and Cook County, I might add we do have corrupt politics in our state. Gosh, our last several governors are serving prison terms.  This year the co-op will have a contact person for matters with HSLDA which is only a stronger indicator that our state has the potential to see more bills introduced that will effect our home school freedoms.  Last April, 4000 homeschoolers appeared in Springfield when a bill was first introduced. It quickly died but now that they know we have a strong voice and will be a large presence I expect to see further matters to be more subtle when presented. 

Once again I rambled off subject. If you think I am bad at then when I type, you should try having a conversation with me. ;)

So we also have information about our enrichment program for the semester. WOW, I was so off on the anticipated start date when I did lesson plans until October 28th.  It will mean that I must reschedule two weeks worth of lessons and of course it rolls down hill.  Seems that my lesson plans will now be completed until November 3rd. 

It turns out that I will be teaching my class twice this semester. I had thought once was plenty but told the coordinator to use me where I am needed. So it was a surprise to find that I am needed during the last hour or there would not have been other choices for the younger kiddos.  It will be a long day. 

As it turns out, one of G's girl scout buddies is also to be home schooled this year. Her father will be the primary teacher. Their family joined the co-op last night. Their decision comes on the heels of a school closure. It seems there is this tiny community that has a small old building for their school. The district home is in another larger community and they closed this school and are bringing all the children to the main school building.  This makes a very long day in these rural communities of an hour or longer bus ride to school and back again, additionally, the community the live in is very different than the one they will travel to.  Although diversity and understanding are important, it is also important to surround your children with those who share your values and faith.  They are lost right now, much like me one year ago. I have so much to learn about home education but will share with them what I have found so far.

Well, once again I am off base of my original topic. What was my topic?  Oh well, I guess it is time to go outside and enjoy this cooler temperatures this morning.

I Am Fired Up Now

We went to the materials display that A Beka Book had yesterday. We went through the third grade language arts material and compared it to the second grade material.  It will be a much better choice for G than the second grade material.  I know she must still work a lot on her language skills for good sentence structure which is part of the second grade material but the book overall was not going to be a challenge.  She is ready to move on otherwise.

Jeff Sullivan is the rep in Missouri and we hopped across to South County St. Louis so we could discuss it with him and look over the material.  The rep that serves Illinois is not nearly as knowledgeable or kind-hearted like Jeff.  We met him only once before and liked him right away but he remembered us and much about our needs. Still, we went to the local guy when it was time to make our purchase. Turns out that the South St. Louis location was an easier and equal drive for us. So for now on I do not want to make any purchases without Jeff getting the financial credit and reward for a job well done.

Back to subject matter:  Jeff really did a great job of showing us why we should go third grade for all the language art subjects if we felt the Language book was too simplified for G.  Oh yes, we really had to think on that one indeed.  Third grade spelling?  How can I do that when I failed so badly at conducting even first grade spelling?  I MUST add that after looking at the second grade spelling I am not worried about it at all, it was all so similar again.  So we developed a plan that would use the third grade language material for all of her Language Arts but will incorporate some of the second grade spelling into the lesson as a "review".  We had her read the middle of the first reader as well of third grade and it was a perfect fit.

K made a decision and  purchased the items needed.  Seeing that she had already purchased all she thought she would need it was an added and unplanned expense, so she bought the first two readers and get purchase the others in several months.  I am indeed feeling fired up today!  It excites me to see that although G and F's parents tend to want a set curriculum they are able to see that modifications must be made to meet the needs of the students. They knew that but as the other teacher in the room I was afraid that they would stick to the set program since it is so well put together for you.  Now I am going through and putting all the lesson plans into one fine tuned plan for each child to meet their needs.  The lesson plan books that are provided are guiding me every step of the way but lesson itself is specific to each child's needs. 

I know that Jeff's comfortable, gentle guidance helped K to feel comfortable about her choices.

THEN there is G!!!  So we get to the car and I tell her that I am just not sure what grade she is in anymore.  So we will call it second-third grade.  As we told her that her math would be second grade but her language would be third grade she seemed happy to hear it.  I loved the toothless smile (fronts are missing) as she heard that I know she wants to learn new things and be challenged rather than do the same old thing over and over.  She told me "as long as it is not too hard"  then giggled and said "every time I am afraid that it will be too hard I find out that it was not so hard but fun".  YES YES YES  I love to hear that she still finds learning FUN.  I think if K would not have made that choice we might have lost that. 

We plan to begin on August 29th this year.  We have the co-op field trips that we will participate in on the calendar and await the announcement of the co-op enrichment program called Master's Lyceum. Tonight is the first co-op gathering of the new "school year".  One of G's girl scout friends is apparently going to be home schooled this year too and the family will be attending the meeting. 

As it goes, I am off to complete the remainder of F's lesson plans for the first 8 weeks.

TTFN

A Surprise for ME

I have mentioned before that I work every Saturday and Sunday as a nurse.  I have mentioned that I have a physical ailment called Antiphospholipid Syndrome.  Have I mentioned that when it flares I cannot think, talk or walk straight? I know I have shared that it is an autoimmune state that causes my blood to develop blood clots spontaneously but some times the blood is just too thick and one person I know nick-named it Sludge Blood. So when it is no flowing like it should it impairs me greatly and usually symptoms that are neurological in nature. So I did not work this past weekend and have been a useless homemaker as well. I am grateful it is still summer break.

Since I learned about APS I got to know my case and my body and what worked well for me, but years ago I did get online and find others with APS. At first a support structure seemed like a good idea but it did not take me long to find that I also needed to connect with Christians who share my faith and my syndrome. I did not like the negativity that I often found and in the support group we were forbidden to pray for each other as it would offend others. I later found the person who headed up the group was Wiccan although raised Catholic.  The Lord was guiding me away from the group but it was clear that I had made a few friends there that share my life views not just my illness.  I have maintained those relationships and had met face to face those I am close to except for on person.  WELL, this morning I met her. She let me know yesterday that she was heading my way and it was a surprise indeed.  She was on her way to Chicago from Texas and she stopped and spent the day with me.  I feel so lifted inside to meet her face to face. There are three people I developed an ongoing friendship with.  Two years ago I traveled to PA to met one. About four years ago friend from Houston met me in St. Louis and we drove to Chicago to meet several others. The friend from Houston also took a trip to D.C. with me last fall. My friend in PA and I are very close and speak often on the telephone. We represent four different decades. 

Since I have been in a flare I was not much fun but we spent our time together in great quality. She understands what APS can do to a day in a moment without notice. She accepted me for exactly who I am, which as the moment is a very poor housekeeper and a fridge that needs to be filled along with piles of laundry that have had to go undone for nearly a week.  We spent the morning moving slow and then late morning in the pool before the sun hit it.  My mother dropped by and had one of my grandsons with her, K brought G and F by as well. 

I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity. I pray that the travel and stress of the trip do not interfere with her health.  She will not return to Texas until Tuesday next week so please keep her in your prayers as well. She is 29 yrs old and traveling alone with her very small dog. She reminds me very much of myself in my twenties. 



So here we are after a morning of pool time. Chissy and BethAnne



comments won't post

I am having a hard time posting comments to the blogs I follow. 
I have attempted to respond to Nikkie at the TN Rose blog and Kayla at arrowwood but it will not go

R U having issues?

Skipping 2nd grade language book?

I have gone all through every lesson for the second grade language arts. G will need to do the spelling but I have gone through the 2 grade phonics test book and she could test out on each one I am certain. I went through the lesson plan and cannot see why I would be reviewing vowel and consonant sounds with her still two weeks into school when she completed the entire curriculum last year and learned ALL the phonic sounds. Sure the last 10 maybe review but begin with a vowel?  NO WAY

Kelley agrees completely with me so she is going to have G read the last page of each reader in the program. If she can do it without stumbling and delayed sounding out of words then we MUST move on. The whole idea is to avoid a boring school but to challenge their bright little minds. I feel like I will be holding G back if I do this.  I might as well teach her w/ F and only teach one level at a time. HAHAHA -- poor G would be so upset to b held up by her baby sister.

ANYWAY WE are going to a material display next week and talk w/ the rep that covers Missouri. I do not like the attitude of the rep that covers Illinois. He does not come to this area enough anyway and the young helpful man who uses this material for his own children cut his own commission in telling us to wait for the sale that was coming up.  He knew we would go to the IL rep then.  

I see that lesson 146 has ABC order, my hubby says that I have to cover it.  I tell him that G can do ABC order already and even three letters into a word.  I went on to show him the lessons and he agrees as well to find what will challenge G.  The books will not go to waste as we still have F to go and then there is Baby O who is going to be born before the end of the year. 

I know, I am rambling but I feel that way in my head as well. IT was not a good day for me with my APS so my mind is scattered.  Just venting once again about this whole 2nd grade language thing. DONE  Good night!