My baby

My precious baby boy

Well, today my baby boy starts his first college class for dual enrollment.  He told me yesterday that he is excited.  I'm glad he is.  Mom on the other hand is sick to my stomach. 

I guess that you need to know that as a kid I always cried the first day of school from day one all the way through college!  I don't like change much and I definitely don't like new things.  I'm a status quo kind of gal.  My kids first days of school, I cried just the same, every year until we started homeschooling.

And now, here we are again.  I wish I could just turn back the clock to those toddler years where my baby boy would sit in my lap and snuggle or come get in bed with me for morning snuggle times.  I miss those days and would run back in heart beat! 

Oh, I know these are exciting days too.  I am so very proud to see my kids grow up and become who they are meant to be.  I'm very proud of how smart and talented they are and they are smart and talented. I love to watch them grow, I just hate how fast it all happened.  I miss those little hands in mine.  I miss those sweet, sweet hugs where they squeezed me so super tight.  They still hug me all time, over and over again all day but not those "I'm going to squeeze you to death" type.  I miss the I love you more, no I love you more game.  I miss my babies.

But I love my teens too and that means college is coming fast and furious!  So, today is the first day of his college class.  Will I cry?  Well, I'm tearing up now as I type.  I just hope I don't tear up in front of him!  I just love that boy!  I am so proud of him.

So, DS, I love you!  Have fun today!  Pay attention, take good notes, sit in one of the first 3 rows, and miss me just a little bit, okay?  I love you!

Busy!

Yes, we have a busy year planned.  Let's see besides "school" we have DS giving guitar lessons twice a week, Monday and Saturday, btw if you are in our area and want guitar lessons give him a call!  Tuesday's are piano lessons for both kids and sewing lessons for DD.  She wants to be a fashion designer!  Wednesday we all have church.  The kids are helpers with the children's program and I'm the Kids Praise Choir director.  Then DD has ballet in the evening.  Oh, and I almost forgot, DS has his class at the Community College on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  So that leaves us Friday's free I think.  Whew!  A busy  year but I think it will be a good one.  DS's class starts this Thursday.  I'm a nervous wreck for him.  LOL  He is very "whaterever"  about it.  Oh, and they are both auditioning for a play in a few weeks! 

Yep, we have a busy year planned but I think the kids are going to have a lot of fun!  Mom may be tired a lot but it will be good for me to stay busy as well.  I can't wait to see my kids grow in all these areas.  They are awesome!

Have a great day!

Today

Well, today was kind of an experiment for us.  This summer I started attending an exercise/Bible study at our church but it is ALL morning, from 8:45 to 11:45, once a week.  I've really been trying to decide if I can continue with it.  I feel like I need to be at home with the kids while they are schooling but I need some time for me too.  So, today was the last day of our summer study and I left the kids home with their assignments and they did it!  They were both done/almost done when I got home.  I still need to go over it but just knowing that they will do their work is a relief. 

So right now, I'm thinking I will be continuing with the fall study and I'm glad.  I really feel pretty good about it too.

First couple of days

Ok, I promised to be back and so here I am!  This year is kind of a busy one. 

DS is taking his English at the local community college.  He is taking Trigonometry this first semester using Life of Fred. 

For social studies he is doing American and World History to include a lot of literature but it's not here yet so for now we are doing an Elections Unit Study and will continue to incorporate American Government in all year. 

He is also taking French this year.  He did a little with it last year but this year we have Rosetta Stone and he is really enjoying it.  I have to make him stop each day and move on to the next subject. 

Chemistry is his science course this year. His course will include a lab as well.  We'll get some of the labs online and I got a neat flash drive from a Chemistry teacher with lots of lecture notes, labs, worksheets, tests and so on.  You check out this guy's website if you are looking at Chemistry. Cavalcade o'Chemistry

DS is also taking music through piano lessons and he will be giving guitar lessons as well.  He has two students so far.  He is also hoping to work at the community theater some this year.  He will at least be auditioning for a few plays. 

I am trying to get some information on a co-op in the area that has art and P.E.  I requested information several days ago but haven't heard back on anything yet so we'll see.

DD is doing Decimals and Percents with Life of Fred this year.  We are discovering that she needs some review from last year so we need to work that in the next week or so.

She wants to do lots of unit studies this year, I think I mentioned this before.  She wants to study Japan, WWII, Ireland, Switzerland and more.  So those will cover social studies and we'll incorporate her language arts with that.  She is also participating in the Elections Unit for now.

For science we bought a book about nature and animals and so on and so forth.  We'll be making it a Life Science class.  So far she is having a blast with it.  She made a nature bowl (I don't have room for a table so we just decided to put what she finds in a little dish.) yesterday.  Then today she researched the trees we have in our yard and identified them and then did leaf rubbings. 

She is also taking piano lessons for her music and will be singing in the youth choir at church as well (so is DS).  They will both be helping out with the younger choirs too. 

She of course will be continuing with Ballet for her P.E.  She is moving up to the Pre-pointe class.  She is very excited.  I just hope they don't put her in the pointe shoes too. 

As I said before I'm looking into a co-op for more art and p.e.  So... we have a busy year ahead of us.  I hope there is lots of fun involved and that kids have a great time learning.

Trying

Well, I started a post here on Sunday and never got it finished and so much has changed since then I decided not to post it.  I'm trying really hard to get us organized this year.  We are kind of free spirited homeschoolers.  I won't say unschoolers because well, we do plan our learning and use textbooks some and try to follow a model of learning but... we do it in a very free spirited way.  I don't mind that but I do need more organization though, so I'm working on that as we speak.  I want to start posting here more regularly but I have so much to do at this very moment that I'm going to put it off just a bit more.  I promise to get back to it soon!  Hopefully, later today or tomorrow.  Have a wonderful Tuesday!