Read a fun book

I just finished a book called Schooled by Gordon Korman.  Great story!! 

Capricorn Anderson had never watched a television show before. He'd never tasted a pizza. He had never even heard of a wedgie. And he had never, in his wildest dreams, thought of living anywhere but Garland Farm commune with his hippie caretaker, Rain.

 

Capricorn (Cap for short) had lived every day of his life on Garland Farm growing fruits and vegetables. He was homeschooled by Rain, the only person he knew in the world. Life was simple for Cap. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and is hospital-ridden, he has to attend the local middle school and live with his new guidance counselor and her irritable daughter. While Cap knew a lot about Zen Buddhism, no amount formal education could ready him for the trials and tribulations of public middle school.

 

Cap doesn't exactly fit in at Claverage Middle School (dubbed C Average by the kids). He has long, ungroomed hair, wears hemp clothes, and practices Tai Chi out on the lawn. His weirdness basically makes him biggest nerd in school. This is great news for Zach Powers, big man on campus.  He can't wait to instate the age-old tradition in C-Average School:  The biggest nerd is nominated for class president--and wins.  So when Cap becomes president, he is more puzzled than ever.  But as Cap begins to take on his duties, the joke starts to turn on Zach. 

 

Will Cap turn out to be the greatest President in the history of C-Average School?  Or the biggest punchline?  

 

Not much new on the curriculum front and we are taking a short break from school for now.  I am working at getting back to posting as often as I can with new and fun stuff to share.

Using something new

I have found a new math product that we are testing and so far my oldest who is the one using it, likes it quite a bit. What I like is that it works in the areas of need, so while he almost has algebra down pat he needs quite a bit of work in Geometry, so the program covers more in that area. The program is called Aleks - check it out here - http://www.aleks.com/homeschool.

What I really love is I can see how much he is doing daily without being over his shoulder. He learned recently that I get reports bi-weekly and it shows me exactly how much time he has put in each day and how far he has progressed and what he has mastered and what is left to master. He has tried many different programs and seems to enjoy this process the best.

After a long break

I am back. I have missed writing. So many things have happened, it has been a busy year. This year I am homeschooling 3rd, 5th, 10th and 11th. I can't believe I am nearing our first senior year. We went through our many shelves of books and educational materials and I had the children choose what they were interested in. How nice to have the shelves cleared quite a bit and only books of interest remain. For a brief time I was worried about my oldest, have I given him everything he needs to succeed in the world, did we cover everything, you know all the "right" subjects. Then it hit me I have been teaching them how to learn this whole time and 90% of what I know I learned after high school and a large amount of that I learned in the last 10 years. So even though I still worry a bit I know they will be just fine. They have not been taught in a box or to meet a certain test, they have been taught to think outside of the box and to follow their interest. I hope this leads to them finding joy in their life in what ever path they choose.

Peace

Somedays...

Some days are great and others just seem to fail tremendously. What a heart sad day. Makes me question everything I have done raising my children over the years. What happens to turn from the years of joy to all this turmoil. Raising children is the absolutely hands down hardest job in the whole world, yes harder than being president of any corporation or even the country. It seems to me in those jobs you can buy your respect, but as a parent you have to earn every darn bit of it from your children. I always felt like I put 150% into raising these amazing children I have, but days like today I just feel sad and I know my husband must feel the same, it is pure defeat, that is all I can call it. My witty joyful self just retreats in defeat. I miss her when she goes away, more I miss what I dream for my family. I know the things I could have done differently but overall our children our blessed, they want for nothing and I don't mean materially (as I am sure they would say they lack in the material items department, though I beg to differ), we love them tremendously and show them by actually spending time with them, being a part of their lives and showing interest in them.

Today I just feel sad for them, they don't get it, they don't get all that we offer them and they don't see the gift in each other, they are blind in their hearts.

Trying new things

I spend a good part of my day willing my children to try new things. I have over the years tried many news things, but never venture too far outside my comfort zone. I love our book business but I kind of always keep in just so, enough books to sell but not so many that I might lose control, but alas what that creates is a business that is stagnent. So over this last week and a half I have been really working at growing my business and learning new ways to do so. I am excited to watch it grow and seem to be working at it with a passion, finally.

I have taken even more strides, I have been watching this website where you can apply to be a writer for them, I have always loved to write, but most of my writing is personal I never shared it, well until I began blogging but that too is very new. So finally I submitted an application with a sample of my work, at first I was scared because all of a sudden nothing would come to my mind to write about, well I finally left the computer went about my day and sure enough as usual while I was driving in the car my story came to me, this is so typical of me to think of what I want to write while I am driving, this wouldn't be a problem except usually by the time I get home my story has left my mind. So this time, because I knew it was important and I had a pad of paper, I began writing it at each stoplight I hit. I was very pleased with the outcome. So I submitted my application and now we will wait and see. I am good with that because finally I took another step outside my comfortable little box.

And on another big note, I applied for a part-time job, I haven't worked outside the home since Nolan was 15 months old. This is right up my alley, involves coffee (aaahhh life it good) and much more, so that is all I will say for now, but again I am so excited that I took that step. I want my children to see you can try lots of things and be good at them.

Oh so much more I want to share on what I would like for my children and you will be surprised as it does not even remotely involve the "American Dream", as to me that is more of a nightmare and I would never want my children to feel stuck. Anyway I will share more on that later.

Learning from my children

Well yes I am back and ready to write again, seems I just needed to breath for a bit. It has been an amazing time, we did so many new things the last few months, the kids thoroughly enjoyed skiing/snowboarding and guess what I went skiing with them, it has been 20 years, it felt fantastic! I am so glad I joined in the fun.

Well, I realize over the years I seem to often tell the children, try something new, pursue that interest, apply yourself, you know all that stuff. Yea well I am great at telling others what to do but when it comes to me, I don't always follow my own advice. We are experiencing some changes in life and I am really taking on the challenge of growing our books business, for a long time I talked about doing it but this past week I actually started doing it. I am getting this sense of accomplishment, what a great feeling. I absolutely love our book business, I love everything about it, books make me smile they always have. I love when a new one looks brand new and then coming across a vintage books makes me smile. I love getting letters from a customer because they are happy they found that treasure they remembered from childhood or because they found the one book they really wanted for their collection. So I am finally treating my business like a real business, I mean was before, I do all the tax stuff (yuck) and am always professional, but I just kind of let it grow in teenie tiny baby steps. The last week I have finally been taking big huge giant steps, what a great feeling.

So I am very excited to see what Audrey Rose Books can grow into. My dream is a brick and mortar someday, right on our own little piece of land :) Yes a girl can dream, and work at making those dreams come true.

I plan to pop in here this weekend and write about another tidbit, or rather big step I took. I just want to relish it a bit, is relish the right word, I think that goes on hot dogs right? I love relish on my hot dogs.

Happy New Year....

Well, I took a bit of time off, more that I just ran out of time to blog and didn't get here. I am going to try to set a bit of time aside each couple of days to come here and chit chat. I am very excited for a New year, each year always brings a new adventure. Last year in 2008, of course part of my adventure was watching my children grow another year older, that is always hard, but we shared a fantastic year together, we went to Disney World, that was Daniel and Samantha's first time and for Nolan and Aaron, they had not been in 10 years, we went with friends which made the trip even more fun, we went to Great Wolf Lodge so the older boys could go to prom, we spent various summer days at the lake, river and other assorted places, we made some new friends and shared assorted holidays together, the children were in a Christmas Pageant which was so much fun, Dave and I really enjoyed watching all of the children perform, what a fun group. We rang in the New Year with Dave's sister and family which was a blast.

This year holds lots of fun in store as well, we will begin by learning to ski/snowboard next week, should be lots of fun. Plus I am working at getting a bit more organized and back to caring for my family, we baked a lot during the holidays but no bread or normal year round goodies I like to have so it is back to basics for me, but this time I am involving the children, we have decided our children need to get informed about homesteading, and all that goes along with it, I have been waiting for my farm, but how silly not to use our skills and share them with the children, and learn what we don't know. So I am planning my much larger garden for this year and collecting goods to can, make our own yogurt (yummy, my favorite), I made lots of granola for gifts this year but completely forgot to make us some too, that is on the sheet for this week.

Anyway as I begin my routine I will post some of what we accomplish on here, it makes me feel some what accountable and I do love to share.

See you soon.