TOS Crew Review #1

I recently had the opportunity to join The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Crew. If you don't know what that is I should explain. Pretty simply it's a program by which homeschoolers like myself are provided with free material to use in their homes / schools to evaluate with their families. In return I provide my honest opinion of the product and post said opinion on my blog and other networking sites for "the world to see". I am not paid for this other than being able to keep the materials provided for me to evaluate.

So like I said, I am in the first stage of joining this awesome opportunity and I received two e-books to read and evaluate as a trial of my blogging and reviewing abilities. So without further ado here is my first TOS Crew review.

The first e-book I read was called “Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready To Start Homeschooling My High Schooler!”

It is a publication put out by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and it sells at their site for $12.45. When I received this book I was a bit flabbergasted. I had been worrying about this very subject for going on 2 months now. You see I have a 14 year old son who will be in high school this coming Fall. After much tribulation over the past 2 years and wondering if Homeschooling was the right decision it seems as though God has not only answered my prayers and put to rest my fears but is encouraging us to continue this journey.

“Help Lord...” is a wonderful resource to add to any homeschooling library. If you have doubts about whether you can do this through highschool these fifteen families will show you that when you put your trust in the Lord,Yes, you can, and that it's going to be a great adventure. Some are stories of those still in the highschooling years while others are past that point and can now reflect with wisdom.

While not all the stories will apply to your situation, at least 1 or 2 will speak to you and more than a few will touch your heart. There were a few, that honestly, did not benefit me, yet there were some which I gleaned some useful bits of helpful information. With an introduction by Amanda Bennett, Author resources, and a resource list compiled by The Old Schoolhouse this book maybe the most beneficial one you buy for your journey through highschool.

If you are looking for something to give you the courage to homeschool through highschool, this is it.

Just remember if God want them (your children) to succeed he will show you how if you trust in Him.

Amanda

Oh and before I forget visit the Crew blog for more reviews!

TOS Crew

I am still figuring out the concept and skills to blogging but I am slowly and surely getting better. Please leave me your feedback so I can continue to grow and learn to improve my blog.

Happy Birthday Tink!

I can't believe it has been an entire year since I had my beautiful baby girl! She has been such a wonderful joy to our whole family. The boys can never get enough of her drooly wet kisses and daddy and I are crazy in love with her beautiful star eyes.  God has so richly blessed our family when he gave us this amazing little girl. I hardly believe she's real, almost like a fairy. My own Tinkerbell, my own little Kewpie. Happy Birthday love and may all your dreams come true! (ignore the dates on the pics, I never reset it after changing the batteries)

Still learning

Peanut wanted to try his hand at blogging last month, and while he learned alot, I don't think it is going to blossom right now (hey he's only 7).  Oh maybe it was minimal skills that didn't help also!  See I can't figure out how to set a blog with their info and not have it linked to my profile on Blogger. Perhaps a change of blog location may help but I really love Blogger. I just cant figure out how to do it without him having his own separate account. Which for a 7 year old just isn't happening...so. Any ideas from my friends will certainly help.

On another note I will be posting my reviews for the TOS Crew tryout soon and am really excited about this awesome opportunity to try some new homeschool products and share my thoughts with you all.  Feel free to stop by their blog and take a look at some of the cool things the Crew reviewed last year!
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew

What's in the Workbox

So we started homeschooling this past August and I recently began using the workbox method to organize the boys schoolwork. Here are some shots of today's work taken after we did the work because I forgot to do it beforehand.

Peanut's Boxes

Box 1

Devotion & Prayer sheet along with memorywork tag

Box 2

Copywork

Box 3

Fun Box today was work with baby sister

Box 4

Math MEP YR2

Box 5

Lunch and Mondays is our Artist study ~ DeHooch for this term

Box 6

Fun Box Lego task card

Box 7

Drill Budokon DVD

Box 8

Latin flashcards

Box 9

Weather! By Rebecca Rupp, we picked it up at Barnes and Noble for $2.50 during their 50% sale.

We are using this to make our Weather Lapbook

Box 10

Weather video from our library

Box 11

Shakepeare book by Lamb

We are reading through The Tempest

Box 12

Tea Time and Handicraft

We read a poem daily and practice our instruments also we work on our handicraft which we are finishing up cross stitch. Peanut plays the guitar.

B-Rad's Boxes

Box1

Prayer sheet and he also works on our devotion

Box 2  Copywork

Box 3 Literature

Age of Fable including his narr. sheet

Box 4 History

ACW and narr. sheet

Box 5

Lunch and De Hooch Study pic

Box 6

Math MEP YR7

Box 7

Drill Budokon Martial Arts DVD

Skinny Diabetics need awesome workouts!

Box 8

Latin key used for flashcards (we play memorymatch)

Box 9

Archimedes and narr./notebook sheets

Box 10

Christmas Around the World (Japan) unit study

Box 11

Shakespeare

Box 12

Tea time and Handicrafts

B-Rad has finished his handicrafts for the time being and is reading poetry from Sandburg. He also practices the drums.

Blogging again, sort of...

Well I probably will be trying to update more regularly but since lil lady is almost mobile it may be sporadic at best. Here is a new pic to whet you baby appetites! Enjoy!

Baby's here

 

 

 

 

Will post birth story later!

20 in, 9#4oz, 3:53pm

Nervous and excited

Well baby is as low as can be but I am just not getting any more effaced. I am 4 cm now but still 50%. We have decided to go ahead with the induction since I now am in more pain than before. We will be going in on Wednesday at 6:30 am, not fun! I will be given a low pit protocol, which is a lower dose than normal, to try and start contractions. I am glad I declined the doc's offer to hook my water, he said today that he doesn't do many of those. I was just uncomfortable with the idea of having my water broken without any contractions, if nothing happpens I am stuck at the hospital on a time limit and it could lead to a c-section (we are inducing to try to avoid a c). Whereas with the low pit we can choose to increase the dose, stop and go home, or if it seems to be working but not very quickly break my water then. I am more in control of what is happening this way. And it is still possible that labor will start on it's own before then so I will try and keep updating. Pray that we have a baby before Wednesday because I really want to have natural labor.

Nursery and a belly pic

Here are some shots of the nursery and my belly at 36 weeks.

Still waiting for baby

I am officially 38 1/2 weeks. I will be going to see my doctor again in the morning. We have decided to do a slow induction on Wednesday if I have not progressed any farther. I am still only 50% effaced, -2 station and 3-4 cm. As baby gains more weight I am having more pain from the seperated pelvis. If it goes much longer I may need a c-section. In order to avoid that we will try the induction. It will be a lower dose of pitocin so I have a chance that my body takes over on it's own. Since natural is the goal we are trying to minimize the need for interventions especially epidurals. Maybe labor will begin before the induction takes place. I have not had any contractions in at least a week unless I am walking alot which if I would not have the seperated pelvis I would be walking up a storm to get this baby moving. Pray all goes well at my appointment tomorrow and I will post updates later tomorrow afternoon.
Oh, BTW, nursery is done, mostly, and will post pics tomorrow also!

Baby's coming!

I had my 36 week OB appointment yesterday and good news is I am in labor(early phase). As of then I was -2 station, 3 cm. dialated, and about 50% effaced. After the doc's hubby and I did some shopping and boy those contractions just started rockin and rollin. I did have some bloody show about 4 hours later once we were home and resting but the contractions tappered off. I went out for a few more things around 7 and they increased again but by bedtime I was ready for some sleep and the contractions again slowed and faded.
Baby had been pretty quiet for the past few days, but last night was moving quite a lot. I did not sleep very well and my hips were sore this morning but I did get some sleep. I will be taking a bit of a nap here soon and probably go look at a new matteress for our bed this afternoon. We are thinking of getting a sleep number. Any reccommendations?

Update to I'm torn

I had a chance to talk to my ds about things that happened at his father's and it seems to be an incident of poor parental control settings on their computer. It is still no excuse but we had a good talk and he displayed appropriate reactions (embarrassed, etc.) and I don't believe he actually saw any harmful images as he was on a video chat site for a mere few minutes (mere seems the wrong word for this doesn't it?) and realized what it was and did not actually chat with the girl portrayed. I guess God was pulling my chain a bit and testing me. I think I handled this well and my son is now better prepared for this type of thing in the future. I do think we will reinforce things as time goes by, however. Thank you to all of you who encourage and uplift me and my family.

I am torn

My oldest is 13 and I found out from his father (whom he spends every other weekend with) that over Christmas break he accessed inappriate websites on their computer. I am devestated. I diligently watch and protect my children from these things but I have no control of his fathers lack of supervision. I suggested he password the computer in the future and I got a grown man whining about how other people use it. I couldn't believe it. He seemed more upset about the charges to his credit card and other inconviences than the damage our son has recieved to his innocence. I keep imagining what he saw and it makes me sick. My son and I have not been able to talk about this since I was only told about it Friday and he is still at his father's until Monday night. I am at such a loss as to what I should do. I am angry that it even took 2 months to be told about this. I prayed about it and since I am working on "Biblical Submission" took this to my husband who suggest we speak to our lawyer about ds's father's negligence. I feel like I am so lost at sea on this.

My ds is such a sweet caring child, innocent and comfortable in speaking to both myself and my husband (he has been in ds's life since he was 3) about puberty and sexual topics. So much so that other family found it awkward for our family to be so open. I never thought he would be a child to seek out this, I have a difficult time even believing it. I did ask him before he left about it and let him know how dissapointed we (daddy & me, meaning my hubby) were and he would not meet my eyes. My heart is breaking for this and him because I know how confused he is. At the same time I also know he knows right from wrong, and good from bad. Am I wrong for wanting to protect my child from the degradation his father apparently thinks is OK?

God is good

I had a dr.s appt on Thursday and finally got a diagnosis for the pain I have been having since almost day 1 of this pregnancy. I finally decided to enjoy the remainder of my pregnancy. I still have bad days but God has made the good days more frequent and better than ever. The dr. told us I have a separated pelvis and referred me to a PT for some relief. I have 5 more weeks until my due date and I hope to enjoy these as much as possible.

Today the ladies of my church threw us a baby shower so now we are ready for this little blessing whenever she is. I was so touched by the wonderful people God has brought into our lives. As they were praying over me I was just so thankful to the Lord. I have never had such a loving group of friends as these.

I have washed all baby's clothes and am amazed at just how adorable and tiny everything is. It makes me think in awe of the life growing inside me.

Our first Artist Study

 

These are pics from our first artist study. I had the boys do Michelangelo, and while the background part was not as pleasant as I'd hoped the project was great. My kids are very much hands on, we tried "ceiling painting" and Fresco. Since I hadn't really planned ahead our trial school days are a bit scattered and improvised. We need to find a structure and hopefully this will smooth the rough spots. I am going to try using Charlotte Mason as our method when we get serious about school this fall. For now it is about seeing what the kids tend to enjoy.

Just a short Hello

I know I have been MIA lately but I have been in so much pain from this prenancy. I hope to rest a lot tomorrow and hopeful be up to more than this. The hubby and I are actually making plans to homeschool the kiddos in the fall and he is getting so very involved with it. I also want to mention that he has expressed some interest in going to seminary. Praise God! This is a man who until the last few years was iffy on whether he even believed. He has expressed interest in going to church as a family and even though these are small steps (I am certainly not pushing, just letting him find his own way)I am so thankful. I continue to pray for God to change our hearts and I am amazed at what He has done.

I have been having such a hard time with this precious gift of being pregnant so I appreciate any tips or reminders. I keep trying to take it all to His feet when it all gets too much. I have been emotional and very much a slacker. I need to be able to get out of bed before 3 pm and stay out. Any ideas on how to stay sane while keeping pelvic pain at bay? I feel like all I do is lie in one place or another and if I do exert any effort it takes at least 3 days of bedrest to recoup. I could really use some prayers girls. I could even use some sample prayers for myself to use in the course of my days.

I think I will try to get to sleep now and do some bible study in the AM.