Day # 4 & 8 Get organized - Coat Closet/Linen closest

I am doing an organization challenge over at A bowl full of lemons.

Day 7 was the linen closet and Day 8 was the coat closet. I don't own a coat closest but we do have a junk closet that shares space with some clothes and shelves that contain our linens. We have a linen closet but we don't use it because of the cats. :( So I decided to tackle this closet today and I was surprised that it didn't take me as long as I thought. That's because practically everything I touch is getting thrown into a box for goodwill. So far for 2011, I am up to 8 boxes.

The Before picture of the junk portion



The Before picture of the linen closet portion


The after portion..probably could still stand to purge some hangers but still it's an improvement!






And the after of the linen closet. I purged a lot of linens but mostly I just re-folded a bunch of them. My only complaint is that it's really hard to fold mattress covers and king sized sheets and make them look pretty. But it's the linen closet after all so who cares!

A Saviour for our sins

Andrew was talking to Peter one day about Heaven and I asked him who was going to Heaven and he said "I am". And I asked him why and he told me it was because he prayed to God that he believed in Him. I further questioned to see what he believed him about and he said "that He is the Saviour from our sins." Apparently he did this several weeks ago while he was playing at the kitchen table. He didn't say but I assume it was a conversation he had with God while playing legos. We talked for quite awhile and he seems to truly understand that Christ was God's son that died on the cross for us for our sins. Since he prayed to God about believing in Him, he has started praying by himself. We still have our family prayer time too but I am so happy that he feels comfortable with praying to God by himself when ever he feels like it.

A few years back, Barrett taught a parenting class and encouraged us to not use the phrase "ask Jesus in your heart" when we are talking about salvation to our kids. That stuck with me and I have never said those words to Andrew and I am so glad because it was such a sweet sweet moment when he told us that he believed that Jesus was the Saviour for our sins. Chris and I look forward to disciplining our sweet Andrew to develop his own relationship with Christ as his Lord and Saviour.

Luke 2:11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

John 14:6 Jesus answered "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Why I love GCA and why we aren't using it next year

As many of you know, Andrew's Kindergarten this year is GCA - Georgia Cyber Academy. It is using the nationally renowned home school curriculum, K12 but it is administered by a state charter school, GCA. Reasons for picking it in the first place are 1) It's free. They send me all the materials and it uses a curriculum that we have a high opinion of. Buying K12 privately would cost $238 a subject so about $1200 a year for all and 2) I wanted to have structure my first year to get the hang of it. I homeschooled pre-K but it was just a one or two days a week when I felt like it thing and I was all over the place with curriculum since I didn't have a formal curriculum for any of it. It felt very disorganized and I thought that if I didn't do GCA then I would never get organized and I would hardly ever do school.

So I am not doing GCA next year and people assume that means that I don't like it. Not true. I like it a lot. I don't like it enough to give my control to be able to do my own thing though. It is time consuming and comprehensive. To do GCA correctly and well, I have had to give up on a lot of my own things that I wish I could be doing right now. But for the most part, I don't mind doing GCA. And Andrew really enjoys it too. I even had hesitations about switching because Andrew likes it so much that I thought that choosing something else would be less fun and I still want Andrew to have fun. I will be more than happy to talk to anyone that is interested in GCA about it. Even if you don't have a school age child yet, catch me this year and I can show you the curriculum and sample lessons.

But here's how I finally was able to sum it up. GCA is a provider of high quality educational information. I didn't feel like I could define my child's educational goals with it because I was going to blindly accept their curriculum each year sight unseen. I can tweak a little..skip lessons here and there, go to the library for extra materials, look on the internet for extra projects. But for the most part, I don't need nor have the time to do these things. So even though it's great, I want to be able to do my own thing.

My own thing does involve someone else's curriculum though. We are going to follow the model of the Well Trained Mind. It's a 4 year rotation of time periods. In 1st grade, we are doing the Ancients. This will come into play again in 5th grade. They have a lot of different recommended books for the different subjects. We will use some of them and not use some of them. A lot of relies heavily on getting additional material from the library which I love. They have some real dud non-fiction books on their shelves but for the most part, I love library supplements. Regarding the fun stuff, I am going to miss the aspect of some lessons being online. I like online stuff and Andrew does too so I will probably supplement with educational computer games. But I did find out that I will have plenty of projects to do with History and Science and that is the kind of stuff that Andrew adores so as long as projects are involved, I don't think he will care what curriculum it is.

More on the specifics of what we are doing 1st Grade soon. We are starting to order from Amazon and it is hard when things arrive to not go ahead and start doing them. Must-finish-Kindergarten-GCA. Repeat..

The Grouchy Ladybug lapbook

Today we did not other school work but to make a lapbook for The Grouchy Ladybug. Lately I have been a justifiable slacker. I have a back condition and am waiting patiently for 2 weeks to fly by so I can have back surgery. I have learned a couple of things during this time. 1) My over ambition school schedule is not going to work right now and 2) any ambition at all is being squashed out by the effects of pain medicine. So I have had to come up with plan B. So plan B has been to do as much as I can and not fall behind (in the school's mind) on subjects.

Today I did something completely unprecedented...I skipped all my GCA work and did something completely different. And it was FUN and Andrew loved it. I was over at http://www.homeschoolshare.com (one of my faves) and noticed that they had a lapbook study on The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. We happen to have the book from the library and I happened to be up way earlier than the kids so I went to work on cutting. Lapbooks at his age involve a whole lot of cutting for the parent because even if I gave him a little bit, there is no way that he could do it. Lapbooks at his age can also be very busy workish. But it was educational too. Example of what a lapbook looks like.

So here are the contents of our lapbook. It didn't really have any creative elements of my own. I pretty much just printed and cut out most of the ideas found here.

Outside flaps - I had him copy The Grouchy Ladybug in his best HWT effort. He did good. He also colored a picture of a lady bug. He wanted to color it half red/half orange.

Left flap - Counting with the Grouchy Lady Bug. I see no where in the book where it counts at all but ours has this accordion style number thing that counts by 5 which is something Andrew did in Math last week. It also had the suggested Bible verse of Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind to one another - since the premise of the book is a grouchy lady bug who won't share and goes to pick a fight with everyone.

Center section - A turn wheel for L is for..ladybug, lemon, leaf, lion. This was fun busy work. Andrew likes things that turns with brads. I had him paste the pictures of the item next to the word. The bottom half had the most time consuming thing ever. It was a flap book that goes from 6 AM to 6 PM just like the actual book and Andrew had to draw the time on the clock, paste the animal of the story on the right time, then paste the name of the animal on. It was good for Time (current Math subject) and animal identification. And good for general fun as Andrew had fun reviewing the book and then pasting all day long. Nothing is more fun than an all day glue stick.

Right flap - Parts of a ladybug - matchbox thing where Andrew pasted the parts of a ladybug onto a picture of a ladybug. More busy work. We can't find it but we also did a little book called Follow Directions and it gave instructions on adding details onto 4 ladybugs and then writing totals for all of them. Useful multiplication intro. 4 lady bugs, 3 spots on each, 12 spots total. Woo.

This took all day. I was completely unstressed by the fact that we didn't do any "real" school. Andrew had a blast and would lapbook every day if I let him. I am thinking maybe a lapbook a week spread across the days probably wouldn't interfere with our actual school work too much so we will work that out in the future. Today felt like Kindergarten. Easy, laid back, just went with the flow...

Tag. I'm it.

So I have been meaning to post about my first couple of weeks with GCA but I haven't been able to because I have been so busy doing GCA. Plus I have to get pics off my camera So that post is coming..I promise.

So my friend Jamie at See Jamie Blog posted a Tag You're It thing and she didn't actually tag me (and why would she? I am a horrible blogger updater) but I am going to play anyway for fun...

1) What is your biggest spending/buying weakness? (Trips to Starbucks, a shoe sale, etc?)

Oh my how I seem to rack up the dollars at Walmart. It's like I can't go by a section and not buy at least one thing and don't even get me started on the school supply section. My favorite section in the whole store. I better stay clear of Office Depot altogether.


2) What is something BIG in your life you never imagined but God made happen?
Wow..I can't think of one BIG thing. I feel like God makes everything happen in my life. There are days when I feel like getting out of bed is a God sized task. Homeschooling has definitely been a BIG part of my life right now and I have needed God every step of the way especially for patience!

3) What is your favorite book of all time? (Or one of them.)
I love all things Francine Rivers. My favorite of hers is the Mark of the Lion series.

4) If you could give your teenage self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Boys are not important.

5) What is your footwear of choice?
Sandals. I am really sad when sandal season is over. I hate wearing closed toe shoes.

6) If you had to name your home-decorating style, what would it be?
Where it falls is where it stays.. Trendy designs by a Three Year Old.

7) Tea or Coffee? (If neither, what the heck do you drink?)
I drink Diet Coke. I managed to go off of it earlier this summer but I was sooo tired that I decided to go back on it. I like Diet Coke. It likes me. I also like coffee but normally made by others like Startbucks or DD so it's a special treat.

I didn't tag any one but if you want to play, leave me a comment letting me know!

1. When you have an hour of free time, what do you do?
2. What have you learned in the last 5 years of your life that you want to teach your children?
3. What is one extracurricular activity that you didn't do in high school/childhood that you wish you had done?
4. What is the most beautiful place you have ever visited?
5. What is your favorite song?
6. Where is one place you want to take your kids on vacation before they graduate?
7. Name one thing that you like to do in the months of January - March.
8. What time of day do you like the most?

Thanks for playing!

Andrew's 1st day of Kindergarten

Andrew is enrolled in a school this year called Georgia Cyber Academy (will be referred to as GCA from here on out). It is a virtual Georgia public school that is using a well renowned national home school curriculum. I have to adhere to all sorts of public school rules like school calendar, attendance, CRCT, even stuff like immunization forms. So I am technically not a home schooler. But I am schooling my child at home. I have a teacher who is over me for advisement and in the GCA world, I am called a "Learning Coach" which is a term I hate. But it is what it is. The perks of GCA is that I get to use the K12.com curriculum for free and they send me all the books and supplies for free and I send them back at the end of the year. And for this reason, I am going to put up with all the government stuff.

We decided to have our first day of school at the same time as Cobb County so we started on August 5th. I only have a few lessons loaded into my GCA online program so there was not much I could start with but since I homeschooled last year, it was not hard for me to come up with my own stuff. I plunged right in to the core academic subjects. Decided to skip meet the teacher, orientation, classroom rules. I even skipped recess if recess is defined as playing outside in the blazing heat. Since we only school for 4 hours, he had plenty of free time which is good because I use him as the primary entertainment for my 2 year old and 1 year old.

I read to a book to Peter about a little boy going to school and I wondered if my school day was too academic but that's one of the fun things about home schooling is that I am able to do a whole lot of academics without it being a drag because I drag it out over a 14 hour period. Many homeschoolers I know have a set school time usually 9 - 2 but I like to do one subject or even half a subject and then let Andrew go and play for awhile.

So for our 1st week of school..
Math - worksheets, reviewed addition math facts, math games on computer
Phonics - continued in Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (not excited about switching to Phonics Works and don't know where to begin there either)
Science - solar system puzzle, painted our solar system model
Reading - Andrew is reading a variety of I can Read books. In the evening, we read aloud Swiss Family Robinson. Andrew usually participates in the hour of reading I do for Peter. My throat is getting sore though so sometimes I make Andrew read to Peter and that is working out well.
Handwriting - numbers; letters he gets but he is struggling with writing numbers
History - They have History lessons loaded into online GCA so we have been able to do those. I wanted to do them every day but Chris talked me into slowing down because they are scheduled for once a week so he thought it might not be wise to finish the semester in the 2nd week of school. So I am restraining and supplementing with my own stuff. We said the Pledge, learned about the flag. Since I know my next lesson is about the White House, I got books from the library on Presidents. Andrew's favorite President fun fact is that Andrew Jackson had a bullet in his chest for 40 years. He is also impressed in how big the White House is. We watched a cute video at history.com.
Extra stuff included drawing for "art" class and we found a cool website for beginner music theory. We still need to work in P.E. somehow but we might start tennis lessons at the Y this Saturday so that will be something but doesn't get us to close to the required 2 hours a week. Will have to think on that.

So everyone posted their pictures of their kids getting on the school bus. Here is Andrew on the 1st day of school. His favorite days in the whole world are the days where he gets to stay in his PJs. On this day, he was wearing winter PJs so he kept getting hot and taking off his shirt and then he would get cold and put it back on but most of the day, he looked like this...




We had a great 1st "week" - all two days of it. We officially start GCA tomorrow. We have a bunch of online orientation classes and Andrew has to take Introduction to Online Learning courses. And then after all that, GCA will load our core classes into their program. Yea!

Summer Day vacation - Callaway Gardens

One of my most favorite places in Georgia is Callaway Gardens. I didn't even know this place existed until college and that's when I fell in love with the Fantasy of Lights (which I haven't seen since but maybe this year). Since then, Chris and I have gone several times by ourselves and have taken the kids on a couple of trips. We have an annual tradition (well this year will be the 2nd time) of going to the Sky High hot air balloon festival over Labor Day weekend.

Before summer ended, my mother in law decided that she wanted a couple of days down there as a mini vacation and she invited Andrew and my sister in law Catherine along with her. I can't think of ANY reason why she didn't also want the 2 year old and the 1 year old. :)

If you ever go to Callaway and like turtles or if you take your kids (because all kids like turtles, right?), there is a little less popular trail next to the Whipporwill Lake (or something like that) and if you go down to the pavilion, there are turtles as far as the eye can see. You can see them swimming across the lake with their little heads poking out. Of course, you get more of them if you feed them. If you can't make it that far, there are also a lot near the Discovery Center and you can pay a quarter to get fish food. Feeding the fish was Josh's favorite part.




Peter in particular was completely enamored with the turtles.



I have also been wanting for years to go to the FSU circus that is there each summer. Andrew was very worried that it would be too loud since it is a "circus". I think he was pleasantly surprised that it was just acrobats. My favorite part was the human jump rope which we didn't get a picture of but I found it on youtube.




I did some pre-show entertainment with some hair styling.


Andrew was mesmerized with the trapeze stuff.


It was a great day and well worth the long drive there and back. Although it was a bit hot (100 degrees or so), I think we still had fun. Andrew enjoyed spending the two days with Granny and Catherine. If how much he talked about something is an indication of his favorite things, then he really liked eating Wally Waffles at the Huddle House and going letterboxing with Catherine.

Stay tuned for more Callaway stuff after Labor Day when we go to the Sky High festival again and also get to go camping with our 7 most favorite-st people in the world.