Fun Things

I found a couple of things that you just might be interested in. And if you aren't interested in them - well - that's ok too.

Halloween Survival Guide, not just a survival guide but fun things to do for all ages.

Something else that I came across today and I really don't even remember how I found it. Superman and I have considered buying the LifePac Bible curriculum for our boys. Why haven't we already bought it? Cost. Yep, plain ole money. We talked about it and thought that once we got the boys going on their regular class studies and all of the required by State stuff that we would start some type of Children's Bible Studies. Here is what I found today that is absoutely free! Bible Study Planet. Yes, I said FREE! All you have to do is print the lesson plans out from Adobe. Easy enough for me.

That's all for now, I'm off to read a little more in my book. We have our homeschool meeting again tomorrow and we are all looking forward to it.

Long Long Day

When class starts and 9:30 am and ends around 5pm, it certainly makes for a long, long day. And get this - class really didn't end at 5 pm, it's just that I had had enough. I couldn't take the whining or complaining anymore. JD can certainly takes hours and hours to whine and complain but he can't take 15 minutes to do his work. I think that for some reason that he believes that if he complains enough that I will just let class go and not do it, or he won't have to do his work. I have showed him time after time that no matter the amount of complaining that he does, he will still have to do his work. How in the world can I get him to understand? And even if he doesn't understand right now, if I can just get him to comply.

I know that some of you may have experienced what I am going through with getting JD to understand, sit still or just simply do his work. What can I do? He wanted my help today with math, no problem - but - the whole time I am explaining the division problem to him he is using his pencil as a car and even making car sounds. How much of this can a person take? I stopped and ask him to stop making the sound and to please put his pencil down. Oh yes - it worked for about 15 seconds. I know - take what is given to me. But the whole 15 seconds he is complaining that he doesn't understand. Well for goodness sake, I guess he doesn't understand if he won't listen.

I suppose some days I am just at a lose. Tonight we discussed his behavior at supper and he had to have a talk with his dad. He certainly doesn't like having those talks with his dad.

MJ is about to move on to Unit 2 of his History and Geography studies, he is also about to move on to Unit 2 in his Language Arts studies. He is really working very well and comprehending what he is reading.

I told WW that I am not holding him back and waiting on JD anymore. Tomorrow he will be able to pick up his books and do his studies by himself. I ask him to come to me with any questions that he has and I will check him from time to time.

Other than it being a long, long day, it was an ok day. Hopefully JD will get some really good rest tonight and we will be able to move him along.

Behavior at our House

Behavior can be such an issue at our house. It ranges from the behavior of a Saint to the Devil himself. Not only with the kids but with our critters too. If you have read some of my other ramblings, you would know exactly what I am referring to. For example: Biscuit (our black cat) walks around the house picking on Mindy (our Schnauzer). Biscuit will even chase Mindy. Really, she does. JD, he can be the sweetest little guy, but there are times when (I believe) that his head spins around.

Today JD just happened to be a Saint. We even had a couple of interruptions during class today. Yesterday I was certainly hoping for the best. I wasn't let down. I know that I will have to deal with the Devil himself, but not today in class. I am breathing a sigh of relief because I have been blessed with a nice day. Even on the bad days, I know that I am blessed, but sometimes it is just hard to see the blessings.

Today I tried something a little different. In the morning I did class with WW and JD. MJ and I worked together on his books in the afternoon. I know it makes for a long day but it really worked. Well, today it worked. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I am really enjoying the Lifepac. At this point we haven't bought the Bible curriculum, but I will buy it. The Language Arts, Math, History and Geography and the Science curriculum have enough reference to the Bible that makes it really interesting. The boys keep telling me that we need to get the Bible curriculum. Superman wants us all to do the Bible curriculum together. I think this would be a wonderful thing for us to do as a family.

Right now WW and JD are playing outside in the pool. They are sword fighting. I look out the window and see their faces smiling and their teeth shining from laughing. A second look and I see CoCo standing by the pool watching the boys play. What a glorious sight! Sitting beside me is MJ reading from his Science book. He has some trouble reading some of the words but I have to give him credit, because he sure does try really hard.

I keep thinking about a reward system, but the more I think about it the more I get confused. Well, not really confused but...it's hard to put into just one word. I remember my parents had a reward system - it went something like this. Behave and you won't get a spanking. Behave and you won't get restriction. I bet some of you remember your parents reward system. I know I certainly do! Nowadays all of the child experts (whoever they are) tell us that our children need rewards. A hug isn't good enough. In today's society we are supposed to take them somewhere and spend money on them. Buy them a toy, an ice cream or some other thing that says you did a good job. Manners are behavior. If you scream in class, you have bad manners. If you sneeze all over the table while eating supper, you have bad manners. Bad manners = bad behavior. Good manners = good behavior. It's pretty darn simple to me. But I know, I have to have a little compassion and a little empathy. Give me a little credit, at least I am trying! LOL

And Saturday Rolls Around

I finally got up before anyone else today! Quiet and it wasn't 2 am. Ok that lasted about 5 whole minutes. LOL JD sneaked into the kitchen and peaked over the breakfast bar to see me trying to read the paper before anyone woke up. Cutest little good morning from the cutest little guy. I love being a mother - yes - even on the rough days.

WW and JD had decided to do their Science class today. We were just so busy yesterday and it got so late, so I gave them the option of doing it today. It was fine for all of about 3 minutes. You guessed it - JD wouldn't read his assignment and then he started whining about the answers not being in the book and he hated Science and on and on and on. It certainly was a morning to behold. JD ended up in his room for the day. Finally around 6 pm he decided that his room was boring because he was not allowed any toys or anything else. He came in the living room and worked on his Science and a few other assignments that were behind because of his behavior.

Here's the real dirty low down. JD was in his room and Superman and I needed to go out to the barn. JD came out to the barn about 5 minutes later and said that he was ready to do his work. Well of course now I am busy, so I sent him back to his room. Once I came back inside, I went to his room and ask him if he was ready to do his assignment. He said yes. Off to the living room / classroom we went. Without any complaining he sat down and started. I headed to the kitchen to put something in the oven. And 3 minutes later he announced that he was done.
Yes - done! I knew in my mind that there was no way in this world that he was done. How did I know this? It took his brother (WW) over 30 minutes to do this and I know that WW applies himself. And once I looked at JD's answers and saw that he got everyone of them right, I knew for sure that something was up. So I took a piece of paper and I rearranged the questions and gave it to him to redo. Sure enough he wrote down the same exact answers. He had to match 1, 2, 3, etc... to a, b, c, etc... This time all the answers were wrong. Why? Because the questions were rearranged but he had memorized the answers.

It took me almost 2 hours to finally get out of him what he had done. He had looked in his brothers book while we were outside and memorized the answers. I had him redo the test and he worked on it for about another hour (yes, he complained), finally he was done and made a 100.

I sure do have my hands full with JD but as I have said before - I will not give up.

Better Ending to a Bad Start

Well I have to say that my 1 mile walk/trot thing was my workout for the day. I had all kinds of plans on what I wanted to accomplish today, but things happen. The horses made sure that I managed to get my exercise this morning. I guess they just figured I needed it - and of course - I did need the exercise. Thank you CoCo, Shadow and Redman!

After my little rodeo, I decided that I was pretty much done for the day. With the August heat outside and the air conditioner on inside - hmm... think I'll stay cool for the rest of the day. I started doing a few things inside and then I thought about getting a few errands done. Darn good thing I did. By doing 2 errands today I saved almost $100. Here's how I did it...

I decided to go ahead and run over to our local home school store and buy the Lifepac material that I needed to start school on the 20th of this month. They didn't have all the material that I needed, so I ordered it. By paying for the items today, I didn't have to pay State sales tax. Yes - no tax until midnight tonight for school purchases. How cool is that?! I had a store credit of $42.95 also. WW and JD will be starting in the 5th grade, so I don't have to buy the teachers guide for one set. That in it self saved me another $40. So with the credit, the discount for not needing the 2nd teachers guide and the no sales tax, I think I did pretty darn good. We were looking at $250 for each child, making it a total of $750. However, I managed to get all my material paid for at a grand total of $516.00. Yippee!

Off to Walmart I hurried so I could pick up a few last minute little things (3 chairs, 3 binders, 3 pair of scissors, 3 sets of binder dividers, 2 erasers and a quilt marking pen for me). We're getting ready for our big day - our first day of home school. I think the boys are as excited as I am. I showed all the material to Superman and I thought he was gonna cry. We both are so happy that we are able to love and provide for our 3 boys.

I almost forgot to mention that I started a quilt pattern today. I haven't quilted in several months of Sundays. So for now, I am off to bed (and lookie at that, it's before midnight), really early doctor appointment in the morning. Nighty, night, night!

Another Week Gone By

My goodness! So much going on this week that I can't see straight. The adoption is getting closer and closer to the finalization date. We went this week to see our attorney (assigned by the state) so that our oldest son could sign the paperwork stating that he wants to be adopted. This is a requirement by law because he is 12 years old or older. Also we had to sign the legal documents about their birth dates and their names and so on and so on...Now we have an official court date and case number. We finalize the adoption on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007.

Maybe this is a good time to give each child a name instead of saying our oldest or our middle son, etc...because of freaks that are online I will assign each one a name for online purposes only.
WW is our oldest, he is 13.
JD is our middle child, he is 11.
MJ is our youngest, he is 9.

I have been working in the yard a lot this past week. Moving the horses from paddock to paddock to help save the grass. Superman cut down some low hanging limbs in the back yard and of course I had to get them up before all the leaves fell off. Well I didn't have to, but I certainly didn't want to rake them up. WW really was a huge help. He loaded most of the limbs on the little trailer we pull behind the 4 wheeler. Of course he got to drive the 4 wheeler. I say little trailer, shoot it is big enough that we haul a lawn mower on it and pull it behind our vehicle sometimes. It took us 2 days to get that done and then we had to burn the limbs.

This is the note that JD brought to me while I was

still in bed trying to catch up on my sleep. I thought that it was very thoughtful of WW to write this note to me. When

I called him on the Walky Talky, he was sitting and waiting patiently at their clubhouse. I told him to let me get dressed and brush my teeth and I would be right out.
I had to save this to show Superman and then I just had to take a picture of it for our family picture book.

I managed to do a little rearranging of a few patio stones around the back door. There was so much sand being brought into the laundry room that I thought that our next garden would be indoors. I cleaned the gutters and now they drain like RotoRooter has been here. I finally finished taking apart a couple of palates that I want to do a few crafts with. Maybe, just maybe I can get started on some cutting this weekend. I mowed my mom's yard (1 acre), I mowed our pasture (3 acres), I mowed our yard and the roads beside our property about another 2 acres. I managed to get caught up on smashing the cans that we recycle. WW and I went for a 4 wheeler ride, just for the heck of it. And I ran umpteen dozen errands.
I piddled around and got more things done, I just can't remember all of them.

I finally managed to start the LIFEPAC Placement Test with WW and JD. No, the test that I ordered did not come in before I started the testing. However, this afternoon I did get the call that the packets are in and I can pick them up any time. Things happen for a reason...
When I graded WW and JD's books that they finished, I was shocked. But then again I really have to wonder how many children could have scored the 70 that they are required to score in order to be in a grade level. I started WW and JD on a 3rd grade level and they both didn't score enough on grades 3, 4, 5 or 6 to be placed in either grade level. I don't blame them and I am certainly not upset with them. I know that it is the system and the public schools that are failing our children. With everything that the boy's have been through, I am not surprised. I have ask for some help from other home school parents in my yahoo home school group. And if you have any suggestions, I will gladly accept them.
I spoke to Superman about their scores and right now we are leaning toward starting them both at a 5th grade level and getting them some lower grade work books that may help them advance. Yes, we are still open for suggestions.

I called the home school store and ask for advise and now I am waiting on a return call. I see no reason to test the boy's anymore at this point. I know that they will give me a credit on the material that I ordered and paid for. The credit will come in handy, because I intend to buy more material.

6 1/2 Grade

What a day today was. Or was that yesterday? With the heat here in Florida, all the days just seem to run together. I have taken a little break away from Summer Schooling the boys. I think the neighbor kids were driving me insane. Or was that our boys that were driving me insane? Oh well - it must be the heat. Ok, I admit it, it was me that was driving me insane.

About a week ago I bought the LIFEPAC Placement Test packet. I only bought one because that is all they had at the time. I ordered 2 more and they were supposed to come in today. Well...they came in, but it was for 7th grade through 12th grade and I need the 1st grade through the 8th grade. Just figures. Now it will either be this Friday or next Monday when the correct packet arrives. It seems like it's always something.

Speaking of something - About a week after public school was out for the summer, I received a letter in the mail saying that if our oldest son did not take Summer School Math that he would not be promoted to the 7th grade. I kinda thought about it and I talked to Superman and to our oldest son and we all came to the conclusion that he would stay back in the 6th grade. With him and his brothers changing schools and moving in with us that everything was just too much and he would do much better to just stay in 6th grade.

With that said and done, we received his report card in the mail. I checked out the report card and I was satisfied with what I saw. That evening I passed it on to Superman and the first darn thing he noticed was that on the report card it was marked that our oldest son was promoted. Hmmm..... Off to the school I ran. I questioned their decision. Which decision - both of them - both the letter that we got and the report card. I had the pleasure (and I use that term lightly) of meeting and talking with the Vice Principle. I explained the confusion that we had and I really just wanted to know if our son was in limbo or was he in 6 1/2 grade. You know, kinda like being 6 1/2 years old. The Vice Principle assured me that they would get to the bottom of this and call me to let me know what was going on.

About 4 weeks later, I had heard nothing - zip - zilch. Off to the school I ran again. And once again I had the pleasure of meeting with the Vice Principle. And exactly why he ask me if anyone had been in contact with me I have no idea. Now don't you think that if I knew anything about what was going in that I would actually be in his office. Certainly makes one think. Well it does me anyway. Yep, you guessed it - someone will contact me. And I wait again...

Finally, I have my answer. The phone rings and he explained to me that they made a mistake on the grades from his other school. Instead of his grade on Science being a 5, it was actually an 85. And the list goes on...
I requested something in writing and within 3 days I had my letter in my hand. He passed to the 7th grade.

Hopefully I will get him and his brothers tested within the next couple of weeks. That is, if the right test packet comes in.

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.