Blogging in Bed

Well, since it's been a month from my last post and I've been pushed off of the couch for the night, I thought I'd finally try to get some blogging done and where better than from my nice warm bed? ;~)


What has been going on lately? What hasn't! Atleast it feels that way. Schooling, horses, church, co-op, holidays, cub scouts, more schooling, planning upcoming vacations, designing, (obviously NOT blogging), oh yea...and college football (lol!)

I am still not sure how some homeschoolers are done in just a couple of hours a day, apparently I will never learn that secret, but truly this is what takes most of our days. And I love it (especially the days we get to stay in pj's for hours)!! We have spanned Columbus to the Gold Rush this semester. We will be heading into some Texas events and the Civil War after the holidays. J can name off the first 7 presidents and give you at least one interesting fact about each of them (oh...and me too! I love re-learning this stuff, assuming I learned it years ago but apparently didn't care enough to remember back then). He now knows where Alabama, South Carolina, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Maine are located on 3 different maps (something with which I have NEVER been adept)...I'm letting him choose 4 states a week to learn about and memorize on the map so it's not so much like "work" since they aren't assigned. This may sound basic, but there are some simple things he really hasn't had the chance to focus on over the last couple of years and I am not blaming any teachers. Sadly in Texas, they have to focus so much more on state testing that they miss the fun of the basics it seems. I could be wrong...but on with my braggin' ;~)...


I think, thanks to Teaching Textbooks, that he might, MIGHT, finally soon learn the literal value of a dollar. I said soon so don't test him yet! Sadly he inherited my poor financial skills. Math is not so scary to him anymore, still not his all time favorite class but he doesn't dread it any longer.


We added a little Spanish and Art Appreciation last month for fun and he's enjoying that change of pace. We also switched our grammar a couple of months ago to Time4Learning which he loves as it is more interactive on the computer. In co-op he has recently learned about China, snot, volleyball, textures in art, pH and has made some great new friends.


He and T have also started spending more time reading at night together, lately finishing Carry On, Mr. Bowditch...great book and T loved reading it but man, it's a sad one! We are discovering that about 1 out of 3 of the Sonlight books for this year are sad ones, someone usually dies...if not more than 1 someone...but they are extremely good stories.


And here's what I really love...I secretly snapped this pic late one night...J had just received the new Diary of a Whimpy Kid book and begged us to let him stay up to read...how can you pass that up?

Now no...it's not all sunshine and smiles, but so far the positives are outweighing the negatives for us.