Back to school.......

well not really, it is more like back to a routine of some sorts. I have really enjoyed the unscheduled chaos of summer and do not really look forward to the scheduled chaos to come. We will tip-toe in slowing on Tuesday with the children looking over their new books or getting re-acquainted with the old ones, yes some we use longer than others. I am excited because as I have mentioned we found a new math for the older two children and I really think this will give them a better explanation of Algebra. We have also added in some fun things to our schedule like a co-op type science, Forensics class, an election class and other assorted things of interest (well hopefully :))

So I am reading this really fantastic book, called The Shack, I feel like finally someone is writing about God as I have always imagined him (this is a work of fiction, but don't be fooled, I really think this author has hit it, not sure how but boy he puts the Spirit to paper like I have always imagined). We have lost track of where we are going and where we came from, we are so busy judging one another based on things that don't even matter. Anyway I am not going to go on my rant about this and attempt to instill my beliefs on you as so many have done to me over the years, I really just wanted to share this book with you, I have been so touched at every turn in this story, I have been brought to tears often and really felt like someone stepped inside my heart. It is one book I highly recommend to put on your reading list and remember you have to drop all of your "rules" and "judgements" about how things should be and just open your heart as you read through this amazing book.

For my home schooling friends out there, the Link Magazine is another must, and again open your mind to other possibilities and choices for home education, you will gain so much wisdom from this truly fantastic magazine with some awesome contributors and writers.

Just for fun since I am on an education kick this post, check out a fun movie called Accepted, definitely a funny look at an alternative college education, don't worry it is rated PG-13, so it is not awful in its content, some may want to preview prior to allowing children to watch, as I respect we all have different choices for our families and this may be just right for some and a bit over the top for others, anyway it is a fun look at education and just how I imagine college should be.

OK, so I am done for tonight and I will try not to go so long between posts again.

Yay some order

Goals continue to be met, today I have made our business official by opening a business account, so we are officially in the book business and our website is up and fully running, feel free to take a peek - www.audreyrosebooks.com - we are open and ready for business. I am so excited.

Our weekend was full with shopping for inventory and celebrating our sons 16th birthday with a group of his friends, this as I mentioned sparked my "get the house in order" motivation. So a good portion is done.

My next big goal is getting my inventory up to the 3000 mark. I have been checking my website on the websitegrader.com site to see if the changes I am making per their suggestions are working and I am proud to day that since my first grade check which was a 3%, I am now up to a 36%, I know still not 100% but I am taking baby steps and almost everytime I check the grade there is improvement.

OK for what I am reading now, I have chosen a book based on several recommendations from friends. This one is called The Shack, it is thus far a tough read in that it is heart-wrenching, but I have been told it is a necessary read and very well worth my time, it is an easy read in that it is very well written and easy to follow. So I will let you know when I am done my thoughts on it.

Are we in order for school? Well I thought we were and then I started reading a lot this summer and found that while I do like my eclectic style I am also leaning towards a more unschooling approach. So while I feel that math is still very important and a good foundation in grammar, I am putting in my older children's hands as to what they will choose to use to fullfill what they feel they need to accomplish in those areas and I will support their choice and give them what ever tools are necessary to help them. History is going to be fun this year as all 4 children and myself are going to make our way through American History, lots of hands on and fieldtrips, with some "real books" "living history books" and the like. I was never much into history which my knowledge is a dead give-away of that fact, but along with my new found interest in it and my husbands astounding knowledge of it (he can answer pretty much any question you have about history of anytime and any place) we will have loads of fun learning together.

So that is about all I have for now.

Accomplished goals

So I have accomplished my first goal of getting my business in order, my inventory was getting a bit wayward and you could find it in all sorts of spots about the house, frustrating to say the least. So with a deadline date in hand, August 17th (my son is having friends over to celebrate his 16th birthday), and of course I want my home to be presentable and easy to hang out in, that was motivation enough for me. Thanks to some wonderful helping hands, my 4 children all pitched in and got my office area in order, my office area is part of my basement where there is living area and such so it needed to be clean, plus WOW how nice is it to be able to find my items that need to be listed in my store, wonderful that is all I can say.



Next I am working on our school area, I am a collector of books (one big reason I got into selling them) and as usual I am spending August overhauling what we are going to use for our home education. There are so many wonderful tools out there to bring into your homeschool and sometimes honestly it can all be quite overwhelming, so we are cleaning out yet again and I am allowing the children to pick what strikes their interest. This is very freeing for all of us. Once we come to a conclusion of what we will be using I will let you know. We will be letting them participate in some of the local classes through our homeschool group as well, plus they will be joining a group to help other people, learning to volunteer is so important and they seem genuinely excited about it.

Yesterday my oldest son came to me and asked after 3 years if he could no longer take guitar lessons, now the shelfish part of me wanted to say NO WAY!!!, but I realize this is his path and he needs to find what interests him, so I told him that it was absolutely fine, we discussed why and his reasons we fair and we completely understand his choice.

Oh and I should probably share this on another post as I may run out of stuff to say (yeh not likely, my friends know I don't barely take a breath, I love talking, I love talking to my husband, children, friends, hairdresser, assorted cashiers at my local shops, people I meet at yardsales, I love love love people, that I will save for another post :) )

Anyway now I kind of forgot was I was going to tell....see I talk and get off on a tangent and lose track of my thoughts :), oh yes, I was talking to another homeschool mom whose children are now graduated from homeschooling and she said something to me that really made me think about how I am educating my children - her statement was "my husband and I decided we did not want to push our dreams on our children, so we let them decide who and what they wanted to be." I love that statement, I hear so many people saying "I want Joe to be a doctor, or I want Sally to be a lawyer, or I want "insert name here" to be "insert career here", but do we really have the courage to honor what our children want to be and not push our dreams for them or us on them? I was so honored to be standing there at that moment she made that statement, it has changed my life. Honestly I never really knew what I wanted my children to be, but I did feel pressure to come up with something for them and now I no longer do. Thank you my friend for that.

I will in a post soon tell you what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Here is to everyone finding their dream and living joyfully on your path.

Loving summer

I am thoroughly enjoying summer so much so that I have slacked off on my business work that needs to be done, I did get our website up and running, but to keep growing I really need to be adding books every day. So I am setting a goal for each week. I will let you know how that goes. Next up is working more at running my home in a more orderly fashion, I just know it will make our school year run so much more smoothly. So I have rejoined Flylady, I love her and all the little tips for getting your home in control, check her out at www.flylady.net, along with Flylady I am reading a book called Happy Housewife, funny never thought I would find a book of that title helpful, but it has been very informative and definitely a good read, entertaining and full of great tips. So hopefully with these two in hand I will gain a bit of control over our home and get my business a bit more organized in the process.

My First attempt

Well here I go my first attempt at blogging.

It is that time of year again, getting ready to begin a new year of home education, every so often I go through a change or rather metamorphasis if you will, I have been homeschooling for 10 years and it seems my philosophy changes with the wind sometimes, but it really is more of a growth experience I have come to realize. I read some great magazines on homeschooling, one of them is Home Education Magazine and the other is the Link Magazine and WOW this year I finally got was has been happening to me all these years. I have been ignoring our true path down the road of home education, I seem often to resort to workbooks and deadlines and really that is just not what we are about. I read two amazing articles about a month back and the lightbulb in my head went wild. I am at heart a very eclectic person overall and that was how we began homeschooling, but fear led me back to the less scary path for me of set curriculum and deadlines, so I knew how all the children were performing and could prove to all that they were doing well, the problem was and is that the children are not happy, they have lost their love of learning, the fire went out and I am realizing this is what I created. So now after these two very enlightening articles the path lit up brightly for me and I am off to follow it, I am in pursuit of the joy of learning for all of us. I am in the pursuit of peace and joy in our home. I don't expect a smooth path but I am happy for the knowledge that it does exist.

Wish me luck on our new adventure.

In my coming blogs I will share some family dreams, some great reads we have come across and some of what we have learned in our years of home schooling our children.