Life Goes On...

Bumps in the road of life aren't uncommon. When I face a bump, I face a choice, the choice to ride the bump out or to try to dig a way around it. I have found riding it out is usually the best policy. So that cryptic remark aside I have decided to delete my long winded and likely boring rant.

Instead I would like to turn back to the real point of my blog. Sharing with all my friends and family parts of my life and our homeschooling journey.

Today was a bad day. I found out I need surgery. I had a horrible night and life goes on. So I didn't miss the opportunity to school. Such freedom it is to see the kids faces light up with new knowledge. My daughter said her favorite subjects are now math and french. In math she is completing basic geometery so I think her new found love of it is because she likes not having to do more additon. And in french having ditched the dry program that had them glazed over I have gone back to making my own curriculum. So she is loving the more fun and creative approach. This is saying a lot really because just a month ago she was groaning about how much she hated school no matter where or how or what was done. I am impressed and pleased to see her start to show some interest. She is now trying harder to practice her reading as well which is terrific and I am seeing a marked improvement there.

Ds is struggling with probability theory in the AI class. Well... so are we it is one of the hardest things I think to learn and I am just proud that he is interested enough to try. That said we are working on catching up in English and Math.

The kids have started a wonderful little bird unit for biology. We are using the coloring pages from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. After the pages are colored and answered we are making little birds nests to depict what style of nest each bird has. At the front of the study I printed outline maps for them to use overlays with to show the range of each bird. And we are using the DK bird study books as well. All in all it may be a long unit but it is proving to be rather enjoyable. I am looking forward to getting to the bird anatomy with them.

Our homeschool association has decided to try to fundraise through a craft/bake sale for the holidays. As we live in a rather isolated area new field trips can be hard to find once all the main ideas have been done. So this is hopefully going to help us rent a bus and take it farther afield. Either way the kids are happy to see the crafting materials come out again. And I am loving the feeling of sewing by hand. Something I can only really get into during the shorter days of the year.

Still I have more planning for the school year and more to tell you...but for now I have a family who wants me.