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Homeschool - The Beginning

Okay, I admit it. I took the plunge. Yeppers. While the boys were at camp this week, I snuck off to the home school store and started asking questions and I brought home a catalog and a little starting point guide. I have just about worn out the pages on both tidbits of information. The boys found my guide and my catalog and they had all kinds of questions and really showed genuine excitement.

Today I took a friend to have a medical procedure done, had to have my mom pick up the boys from camp because I wasn't able to be there on time. What a blessing both ladies are. I called my mom and ask her to meet me with the boys so that I could run an errand with them. She met me and when she pulled up beside my car, the boys called "Hey Mom!". What a feeling. I gather them up and off we went to run our errand. Oh yeah - that was after I thanked my mom and told her to be careful and that I love her. The boys were so curious about where we were off to. We are off to the home school store. "Oh did dad give you money to buy our test"? "Yes he did, are you excited about taking your placement test"? I could hear a chorus of 3 say "Yes Ma'am". Now that's what I'm talkin about! I really think that their excitement cup runneth over. And that's a good thing.

While we were at the home school store the boys were on their best behavior. I was very proud of them (to say the least). Darn it - they only had one placement test package. No big deal though, I ordered 2 more of the packets. We are getting all set and ready for action. When we got in the car, our middle son claimed the test packet as his. He wants to take it now. Mr. I don't like school wants to get started, NOW.

The placement packets should be in one day next week. I am considering getting them all started on taking this set of test now. There are 5 test books in the packet, History and Geography, Science, Language Arts, Math and Bible. It is the LIFEPAC collection. I could start one on Science, another on Math and another on one of the other subjects. And when the other 2 packets come in, I could continue on from there. One of the boys wants to wait and do it as a team and the other 2 want to get started now. I will have to see how our weekend goes. I think I may just wait on the other books. Then again...I am anxious to get started - NOW.

Fun and Free

I think that I mentioned a couple things about me. I want to Homeschool our boys, however, I haven't quiet made the decision to Homeschool them yet. One thing that I have just started is that I am Summer Homeschooling our boys.
I started out with my 3 boys. Their ages are 9, 11 and 13. This Monday (yesterday) the 3 neighbor children joined us for class. Their ages are 7, 9 and 11. Our public school has all of the children in the following grades: 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. So you can see the range of grades that I am working with. We all read together as a group. Even the younger ones read aloud in class. I have even assigned them spelling words that will benefit all of the age ranges and grade levels. They all help each other out and I try to get them to learn a little patience while listening to each other. It isn't easy but they are all trying and that is part of learning.

I have found some wonderful links where you can print out free worksheet. Our boys really enjoy working together as a group and working on their own with the worksheets.
Some of these websites are free to join, others thre is a fee. I find free worksheets and information on all of the links.

Find the 50 State Capitals.
Lots of Free items at School Express
Songs for Teaching
Free Math Worksheets
Great printables
Teacher Stuff
The online reading program Reading a-z.com
Connections Academy—the free K–11 public schooling program that students attend from home.
Sites for Teachers
Free Educational Worksheets
Learning Page
abc teach
Printable Certificates
Teacher Planet
Carl's Corner
edHelper.com

Also - I wanted to invite you to join me on Gather, a social networking site where people like us meet, talk, and stay in touch -- all for free. The content is great and ranges from politics to cooking, plus you can publish your own articles or photos and comment on other's contributions. We even earn Gather Points just by using the site! You can exchange your points for great stuff like books, CDs, wine, and vacations. Check it out! Hope to see you on Gather.

Magic Show

Our 3 boys are very creative. My sister finally stopped by to meet the boys. She certainly took her dear sweet time too. Her visit lasted about an hour. Our boys made that one hour one to cherish and remember.

The Magic Show - the boys are in their room and I can hear giggles and every now and then one would sneak out and go to the kitchen sink. I had no clue what they were doing until I peaked into the bedroom. They had their box of magic tricks out and one was reading the book and the other 2 were helping each other out. So I just let them do their thing.

Let the Magic Show begin - out the boys come bringing tricks for everyone. They started with a cup of water that they put into a box. Turn the box upside down and the water doesn't pour out. Turn it right side up and the cup of water had disappeared. Amazing! Next was the bowl of water - a special bowl with water in it. Yes we all got to see and touch the water to make sure that the bowl had water in it. The bowl was turned upside down and wa-la the water was gone. Where did it go? Only the magician knows the answer. And by the way - It's magic. There were several other magic acts and they all were wonderful.

These children are more wonderful than their magic acts and I hope they never disappear.

A Birthday

Yesterday (04-23-07) we had a birthday at our house. Our 12 year old is now 13 years old. We ask him to "Resist the Aliens". Just a running funny in our house. It always seems like when children become teenagers that the aliens visit them overnight and they become something that the parent doesn't recognize. For some reason the aliens will return the children back to somewhat normal around the age of 25. We are certainly hoping that the aliens stay away! LOL

We woke up our now teenager by flashing the light and wearing aluminum foil hats and singing happy birthday. It was very funny, especially to our 11 and 9 year olds. They really enjoyed it.

This coming Saturday will be the big birthday party. Gifts will be given, cake to be eaten and of course a mess to clean up. Outside - oh yes, it will be outside. This is just new to us and it is a big deal. This is our first birthday with our new children.

Wish us luck for the party and to help our teenager resist the aliens.