Homeschool??

We've talked about it. we've thought of alternatives. we've shared concerns. Now it's time to take action.

Our homeschooling talks started before we were even married. We lived up in Saratoga Springs (Neil) and Ballston Spa (Pam), NY for 6 months during some of Neil's training for the Navy (Prototype). We were fortunate enough to find an incredible church family, and oddly enough, that church family was loaded with homeschooling families... 1 family had 3 kids, and 2 other families had 5 kids.
However, none of these kids fit the "home schooled kid" profile that I had always been told about, and seen. You know, the kid that has absolutely no social skills, and is more excited about picking his nose than interacting with people...the outcast kid at church...and the one who just doesn't seem to "get it?"
These kids weren't like that at all! They were polite, courteous, interactive with both adults and other children of ALL ages - their own peer group, older, and younger. They had an incredible understanding about the realities of life, and the realities about who God is. Other kids liked them! The only thing they were lacking was the irresponsibility, obscenity, and perverseness that is so common these days with kids of ALL ages.
I remember Neil and I looking at each other and saying "Those kids are home schooled?"

As time went on, we met more and more people that had gone through some kind of home school curriculum, and were just as social, if not more so, than people who were not. And they were incredibly intelligent.

Bella has always been bright. I've never really had a plan with her, other than to just challenge her as she's ready for it. That was my potty-training technique, and that's how I've been with her with everything else as well. When she was 10 months old, we were looking at an animal book together, and, as always, I was going over the same animals and the same sounds that we always did, only this time she pointed to the dog and started panting (a sound she could make at that age). From there, we did all kinds of animal sounds, and just kept going...shapes, colors, letters, etc. Whenever she learned one thing, I'd make it a bit more difficult to challenge her. Always repeating everything over and over and over again...

Anyway, there came a point about a year ago that I started thinking about school for her. I started school when I was 2 ( a mother's day out sort of thing), so it wasn't weird to me to think about it. With Balian coming, I thought it might be good. Then I started thinking...
Bella does so well working at her own pace. She's really bright. She learns so quickly. I started worrying about her being bored, and then hating school. Then again, there was the social aspect of it...I feel like for the past year, I've been torn.

Once we moved here, to Granbury, and I was dealing with so many things at once (moving, newborn, PPD, making friends, starting out at a new church) Bella's behavior started to become pretty bad. I know a lot of it was all the changes that she went through. Not just the moving, but mommy being different. We were at home A LOT more than we were before Balian was born...(I still don't think we're really back to our "out and about-ness" that we had before. ) I think a lot of her misbehavior has had to do with down-right boredom. And I, after taking a long break from all the challenging and teaching with Bella, didn't really know where to start as far as how to give some structure to our days and teach her at her level. I would try to teach her something, but I'd get frustrated when she didn't "get it". I was teaching over her head. I was totally lost. and frustrated. I think I just kinda gave up.

For months, we've been butting heads, and I've been like "There's no way I can home school this girl - I'll go crazy! Can we just put her in school this year?"

Then the light turned on. I need help!
A friend of mine told me about a curriculum that she had been looking at called Hands on Homeschooling. Essentially, the mom who made it was a former preschool teacher that decided that she needed to add some structure to days at home with her first child, who was 2 at the time.
Seriously, this may be the best breath of fresh air I've seen in a while! The curriculum is not only bible-based, it's like school and Sunday school combined in a really practical, FUN package, that only takes up about an hour a day for "teaching". Recipes, activities, field trips, Bible stories and memory verses for every week, worksheets (like for tracing letters and numbers) etc. are all put together in a nice, neat little package. Oh, and the best thing about it is that preschool isn't this one big chunk called 2-5 years. Each age has a totally separate curriculum. So the 3-yr. old curriculum is very specifically age/developmentally- based for 3 yr.-olds.
I think this is fabulous.
Where do I sign up?
Well, now I know where. I just have to do it.
My only dilemma is that we don't have an extra room to set aside for school. I know that isn't necessary, but it seems like it would help with focus. We'll figure it all out in time...

If any of you home school and you have some suggestions/ resources, PLEASE let me know! I'm new at this, and I'm learning as I go...heck, I haven't even started yet! And by-golly, I need help!

Balian's 1-yr. pics

I can't believe Balian is going to be ONE in less than a month! I took his 1-yr. pics early, to do invitations, of course! We had a lot of fun being really messy! Somehow I was able to get at least SOME good shots - even with a cranky, teething baby! Enjoy!

Some News Bites

I wish I were giving an update on my post from a couple weeks ago (oh, the possibilities...), but nothing has really come of it yet. So yeah...still not gonna clue anyone in on that one yet.
However, we've got some other news bites that I wanted to share:

1. Balian has been cutting teeth like crazy. He cut both of his bottom middle teeth within a week. Now, on week 2, he's working on his first top tooth. He's also cruising around furniture like crazy, and accidentally letting go for a couple of milliseconds...only until he realizes that he's not holding on to something and immediately does so. Not sure when this boy is going to start walking. Probably a week and a half after his first birthday, just like Bella...he's followed her footsteps on everything else! Totally has the strength already...just not the guts. He's so careful for a boy.

2. Neil is off on his 2-week deployment that he has to do once/ year for the Navy Reserves. we don't think the boat he's on is actually going to go out at all, which is nice, but he's still on the other side of the world, so it still seems like it. But two weeks vs. 2-4 months is NOTHING in comparison!

3. Bella has learned all of her uppercase and lowercase letters. we've been working on her letter sounds for a while now, and she knows all of them except for the vowels. She can get the short sounds, but the whole "letter saying it's name" thing just totally goes over her head apparently... and if she does get it for a bit, then she thinks that EVERY letter says it's name...I can see how it would be confusing. Any suggestions on how to help her out would be greatly appreciated. I've tried making up silly poems to help her out and everything. anyway, as soon as she learns ALL of her letter sounds, I'm taking her to the "beach". Our beach is Granbury City Beach, which is amazingly a pretty nice beach/park on Lake Granbury - with good sand, and water with only "lake waves". Perfect fit for Bella!

4. I'm slowly learning to drive Neil's car...it's a standard. So far, I've only driven it once out of our neighborhood, but our neighborhood is pretty huge. Now I'm working on driving it to church on Sunday mornings...less traffic. once I master that, I'll probably branch out and do more :)

5. We're pregnant again.

Did that catch you off guard? yes, it did us too - shockingly, actually. I think I'm still in shock and I've known for about 5 weeks now.

To answer some questions that I know you're wondering:

- why so shocking? I was on BC for 3 months to help regulate hormones because of the PPD. I was feeling good, so we decided to do a trial and get off of it and see if I still felt good. I had absolutely NO fertility signs, and we still got pregnant. only us, right? Oh, and then the funny part is that at about the time I was supposed to start, my temp dropped just like it should...SIKE! (yes, I just typed that). It totally shot up again after that...and on day 17 of high temps, I was like "wow. I'm pregnant." so no fertility signs, then no symptoms of pregnancy at all like I usually have early on...nothing. but sure enough...we got two lines. Just goes to show that God is totally in control. He does what he wills, whether its in our plans or not. He Blesses us when we least expect it.

- I'm 9 weeks pregnant.

- I'm due March 20

- Balian and the baby will have an age difference of 18 months.

- Boy or girl doesn't really matter to me, but I already think it's a girl. I could totally be wrong though.

- This pregnancy has been the worst so far with how I feel. I'm so much more nauseated...but the worst part is that like always with me...I never actually get sick. So I just feel horrible all the time with no real relief except for sleep. I feel bad when I'm hungry...or when I just ate. I feel bad because of the heat...or because I'm in a moving car...or because I just do for no reason at all... and it's all like this heartburn-ish yet dizzy kind of nausea. horrible. Luckily, my dad had these Sea Bands that he uses for motion sickness that are also supposed to work with morning sickness...and it totally helps! They're like sweatbands that you wear on your wrists that have this bead on them that you put over a certain pressure point on the wrist. Totally great!

- I've had my first Dr.'s appointment and my first ultrasound.

- I NO LONGER have a BICORNUATE UTERUS!!! Praise the LORD!! Apparently Balian stretched it out, and I'm normal now!

- I may end up changing doctors because of proximity to the hospital. The doc I'm currently going to now doesn't deliver in town - she delivers in Ft. Worth at Harris Methodist SW, which is an AMAZING hospital - especially for labor and delivery...but problem is that it's 45 min. away. If it worked out like the last two kids, and I was at the hospital already before going into labor, that would be great, but we just don't know that. The hospital here, in town is only 15 minutes away. I'm going to try to go on a tour of the maternity ward, and set up a consultation with a doc that was recommended to me that delivers in town.

- we will be looking into getting a minivan (yes...those words just came out...can't believe it. never say never, I suppose.)

- lets just say that we've been totally spoiled by the Navy when it comes to maternity care. :)

I guess that's all for now!