Am I alone in this??? I go in spurts with the curriculum. I love to look at all of it and want to buy, buy, buy. I get to worrying that what we are doing isn't enough. I'm such a worrier.

I know my son is learning. He is learning so much but I worry it's not what he should be or even worse.... that it's not what the kids in school are learning. I know that is nonsense. Who cares right? Well, next year he has to take a standardized test and I worry. Yes, already, I'm worrying about a test that's not until next year. Crazy I know but I'm worrier.

His math is going great and I know that he can read and understand just about anything but we've been lax in Science and I know that what we've been doing in History is different from what they are teaching in school (although what we are doing in History is great and he is just soaking it all up!!).

Anyway, does anyone else do this? I'm constantly looking at different curriculum wondering if it is better than what we are using or looking at different styles of homeschooling and wondering if we should switch or if it would be better for us. Questions, questions, I've constantly got questions.

Hello cyber friends! Well, last week we learned a lot about painting. We painted the kitchen and the deck. What would you call that... home ec? no, art? I don't know, but we spent most of the week on it.

This week we are starting a new science topic. We are going to do 10 weeks of the human body. FUN!! I bought the "10 Terrific Weeks" program from Usborne books for us to use. I think it will be good and seems like fun.

We'll continue on with our regular stuff too. We are finally getting to the Greeks in History and I know DS is excited about it. He's been dying for them since we started!! It seemed to take him forever to get here. Because he wanted to get here so bad he had a hard time getting into the other stuff and so it took him forever to get past them but here we are.

I'm getting ready to start putting together a scrapbook of our year together doing this homeschooling thing. I'm learning that I need to take more pictures and be more organized for next year.

We will have DD home next year too. That will be Fun, interesting, and a lot of hard work!! I'm looking forward to it though. I've already got our history picked out for next year and maybe our science too. I'm ready to get started now. Hmmm... I guess you can see where DS gets his impatience!! Shame on me...

Hope all is going well with my dear friends out her in cyber space... Take care until next time....

Burn out?

No, not really but I'm feeling very cranky and DS is feeling really lazy and has an attitude this week. He's been slow and careless. It's driving me insane! How do you take a break and still do school? Now, that didn't make any sense!

I've been thinking a lot about next year. DD will probably be home with us too. She'll be in 2nd grade and DS will be in 7th. I've been thinking a lot more about unit studies but I'm not sure about it. I really like the classical approach, although I do it lightly.

Things really are going well, I just get frustrated and so does he. I really need to look into all our options. I'm not sure we like the History Odyssey. There are parts we enjoyed but not much. We really enjoyed just doing it on our own but I worried so much about not covering what needed to be covered. So anyway, we will probably be looking for something else for DS. I may use TWTM books (can't think of what they are called) for DD. I wish they had something for the older kids too.

Hmmm... now that I mention it, I may try their grammar for DD too. DS has been using "Language Arts Through Literature" this year and we like it for the most part but I may keep my mind open to TWTM curriculum that they have out there. (Meaning Susan Wise Bauer and Jesse Wise books that follow their book TWTM.)

Anyway, just thoughts for today. Frustrations and nerves are high in this house today. We need DH home and no more sickness. We need spring.

DD has been home all this week so far. She has Croup. Poor thing. I thought she might go to school today but it was not the cards for us. She had a very rough and long night. Her fits of coughing were terrible. I think, hope, pray that she will be back at school tomorrow. Times like these I really wish that we had just taken her out of school too but we didn't want to force her. Anyway....

DS is working very slowly this week. I don't know if has something to do with DD being home or if it's just a slow week. He gets all his work done but it takes most of the day. (Usually he's done by 1 or so.) His heart just isn't in it. He's doing well though and has been working mostly on his own. I just answer his questions as he has them or help him look them up or whatever.

Me? Well, I'm feeling rather poorly so I'm napping when I can and drinking lots of water. I've been reading again which I truly love and am glad I'm making the time to do it more. That's really it here. How are you all doing?

Well, DD will be home again tomorrow. She has a terrible cough and fever with a headache too. Poor kid. We're going to the Dr. in the morning but I'm sure they will just tell us to let it take it's course.

I'm going to get some work together for DS to take with us to the Dr's. Not sure what yet but I'll think of something. Probably, math and reading. That's the easiest thing to take I think. I'll take books to read DD and maybe a puzzle book too. It always helps things go better when we have something to keep them busy while we wait. I'm not sure DD will be up to anything but reading but DS can do his.

It's times like this that I'm glad I homeschool DS and wish DD did too. It makes things easier and they don't miss school because we can take it with us or do it at a different time during the day or even adjust the lesson so that they can get it in with minimal effort but still learning.

I'm looking forward to this week and what our homeschooling will bring. What will yours bring?

Spring is in the air... well, for today anyway! I'm getting spring fever. The kids want to be outside always! I want to work on the house and the yard. I'm really not very good at either.

We had horticulture today. I think DS enjoyed it for a while but then he came to me and said, "I'm going to get started on my math now." Too funny!

I'm really not very good at yard work. For one thing it really hurts my back. Besides that though, I just don't know what I'm doing. I was really just trying to clean the beds out so that new growth could start but I'm afraid that I may have pulled some of that new growth out. But regardless, it was good to be outside in the sunshine for a while and spend that time with DS.

We also went to the library this afternoon. That was nice. DS read a juvenile version of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" last month and now wants to read the real thing. He's so funny. He loves to read.

We've been doing a lot of talking about writing. DS hates to write. He loves to tell stories but absolutely hates to write. He hates to write anything at all. We've tried the journal thing but he doesn't do it. So I'm at a loss. While we were outside this morning, he kept asking somewhat philosophical questions. I told him that those would be good things to write about in his journal. Pose the question in his journal and then write about the different answers or thoughts. Well.... total no go. He has a big writing assignment coming up and it is going to be like pulling teeth to get him to do but... I've got a good pair of pliers!