Starting to Say Goodbye

I sold the formal dining room table today. We won't have space for it in the new house and needed the cash to pay for some of the small expenses that pop up when you build. As I sat in my empty formal dining room I had my first real emotional response to our big move, I cried.

You need to know that I am not a "things" person. That is, I don't get emotionally attached to things. I can easily purge and I don't feel the need to keep every thing my children have touched. Things are easily replaced and other than a few extra special items such as a few baby clothes (and by few I mean 2 maybe 3 items) and pictures, I am not truly attached to things. This is why my reaction surprises me so much. But as I sat there on a chair, which is also being sold, staring into the empty space that used to be filled with the dining table, I was suddenly overwhelmed with memories. We have only been in this house for 3 years, yet I was shocked at how many wonderful memories we had already made. While none of my children were born here, and in fact Brianna has moved 3 times in her 8 years, they did so some "growing up" here. Maybe the fact that I spend such an unusually large amount of time with my children has made the memories collect faster, maybe this move is different because instead of moving two streets over we are moving clear out of the city, maybe I have associated this house with being where my last baby learned to crawl, walk, talk, and is now a nearly 4 year old little boy, maybe I am having a fight with my vanity and am wondering if maybe I do really want a big fancy house. I don't know at the moment.

I remember hosting a House Party for Wii Just Dance. I will spare you the photos. I am sure my friends appreciate that too. Even as I type this the scene playing in my head makes me laugh out loud. I remember family holidays with my house packed with people, countdowns to Disney, fish frys, Grandma Shirley visiting from England,  summer days spent on the water slide outside, the two freak winters where we got a foot of snow and we spent hours outside building a snowman that a teen decided to decapitate.  I remember how excited I was when my husband painted our school room and when Brianna and Keira learned to ride their bikes on our street. I remember making fairy houses along the walking trail and surprise trips to the community park. I remember...

 Right now it is all becoming real and during random moments it seems to all catch up with me. But that is ok because I know this is right. I know this is where we are being led and I know that the new house will offer us memories and experiences and that one day I will be able to call it home.

List of Educational Documentaries

Picture Credit

Being a homeschool "activist" I love watching videos on education. It is incredibly interesting to get a peek into just how the system is run. As with all documentaries none of these are without some bias, but usually there is enough truth to make them well worth watching. Here are a few of my favorites. Be sure to check out Netflix if you  have a subscription. Many of these can be found there.

1. Waiting for Superman. Follows the story of five families trying to get into better schools (usually charters) through a lottery program. I highlights the pressures put on children to perform for standardized testing and entrance exams.

2. Children of Cesar. My personal favorite so far, Dr. Voddie Baucham addresses the topic of education and the Bible. It is basically a recorded sermon with some graphics, but Bro. Baucham is very easy to listen to, even for someone like me who usually doesn't care for audio or video sermons.

3. Indoctrination. Another Christian perspective on the damage the public school system is doing to our youth.

4. Race to Nowhere. This one hits mainly on the homework problem in the public school system. Is homework necessary and if so how much should each child have?

5. Teached. Controversy over teacher tenure and inequality in urban and minority areas is covered in this documentary.

Zumba - The Class that Makes You Want a Clinky Skirt

I was drug by my meanie friend/torturer/exercise-forcer-onner to the local YMCA for Zumba class.  She promised it was going to be fun.  I showed some hesitation, more for her benefit than mine, as she likes to feel like she has influence over people, so she basically told me that I had to have a broken limb to get out of going and told me that she would be picking me up at 5.  (I told you she was mean!)  After briefly toying with the idea of breaking one of my own fingers or something, I said ok.

Ok.

At a little after 5, she arrives and we leave to go Zumba.  Another friend was there for the torture Zumba class as well, and at 5:35 we entered into the chamber room.  There were several people there and I was pleased to see that everyone was not skinny and 5'9", well one lady was, but I will get to her in a minute.

We sat our things down in the corner of the room and stood, waiting for the instructor.  Suddenly, I hear my friend saying, "Girls, we have to move our stuff, because it is in SOMEONE ELSE'S SPOT."  Friend met someone meaner than her that announced our bags and bottles of water were encroaching upon her territory.  So, we moved our things a bit further down the wall.

Speaking of the walls, all the walls have mirrors from ceiling to floor.  Pfft.....  I have not seen that much of myself all at one like that since the last time I tried on clothes and had to stand in front of those three way mirror things.  Hmmm, I was with torturer/friend that time too.  I am seeing a pattern here.

Anyhoo, the instuctor walks in and the class gets started.  It was a cross between wiggling everything on your body that can possibly wiggle - ON PURPOSE I MIGHT ADD AND THE MORE IT WIGGLED, THE BETTER - and aerobics.  The instructor was very difficult to follow and midway through I was doing some sort of twisty butt thing and essentially broke my knee.  How did I manage that, you ask?  You have to do a twisty knee thing to do the twisty butt thing, or at least that is the only think I can figure out.

The tall skinny chick I mentioned earlier knew how to do all the twisty things and made them look easy and fun.  She was wearing this clinky skirt and made it jingle jangle in a way I would never be able to manage.  She was clinking with rythm.  I suspect that if I were to have the clinky skirt, the only reason it would make any cool clinky noises at all is because of all the wiggling the wiggly parts of me do without trying.

So my verdict for now?  It was not fun. But I was told that was because of this particular instructor and that I should not pass judgement without going to another class.

But, I will have one of those clinky skirts no matter what!

My new choice of grocery store wear!

Free Lesson Planning Pages from Around the Web

It is that time of year when the majority of homeschooling moms and some dads are getting busy. We have bought and sold curriculum and now have most of our "stuff" otherwise known as educational opportunities for our kids.  It is now time to clear the fog leftover from homeschool conventions and the heady scent of new curriculum.  We do this by planning.

You gather all your books and papers and laminated things and excitedly sit down.  A bouquet of freshly sharpened number twos grace the table next to your cup of hot whatever and your dominant hand.  You are sitting in a position that says, "I mean business, Y'all."  The only thing missing is a lesson planner.  You can buy one. There are lots of good ones. But, there are also those that are free.

Here are some favored links to free, create your own, lesson planners!

1. The first, and one of my favorite resources: Donna Young
2. This is a new one I have ran across, complicated looking, geared toward public schooling, but I know some homeschool moms will probably love it - Lesson planning in the cloud - LessonPlan.it
3. This one is a KISS (keep it simple stupid) - Super Teacher Worksheets (opens a PDF file)
4. Another KISS one that is all on one page from MeetPenny (opens a PDF file)
5. Here is one geared towards Catholics - But I am willing to bet a protestant could use it too...
6. This is cute for littler ones - Tot School
7. This is one for Five In A Row
8. A free one from Teachers Pay Teachers (A very nifty site, too!)
9. Beautiful pages from Notebooking Nook 
10. A free one from TeachingMy3 at Teachers Notebook

There you go. Ten awesome places to start.... I have to say I was VERY tempted by 9 and 10 and I already have a lesson planner.....

OH and one more thing, Anna says that the posts with more images gets more attention so here is a cute cartoon for you.

Doubts and Fears

Whew, that didn't take long. Now that the decision is final, I have begun a sort of back and forth between being on a high and being filled with anxiety! How will we sell this house? What do I need to purge? How long will it take to get the new house dried in enough to live in it? Should we go ahead and take out a construction loan just in case? How will we sell this house? What will family and friends think? And most importantly, how will we sell this house?!

At the moment we have received nothing but a positive response, but then again we have only revealed our plans to a few as of me writing this (though I am sure now, everyone knows). We expect to get some negative response because when we approached the idea the first time back in January we got that response. I can't honestly say that it doesn't make me wonder, at least every now and then, why we are doing this.

Looking forward I see such a great future. One of the mortgage free variety. One where we are no longer slaves to the bank and our debt. Debt we are managing, but who wants to just manage when one can conquer?  I also see a future of my children growing up with a kind of independence we can not give them here where streets are busy with cars and yards are dominated by home owner association rules. I see them running 3 houses down to grandma and grandpa's house to see what sugary treat they can weasel out of him (and we all know grandpa is the culprit in this situation).

But what if it doesn't work out? What if we hate living in a less than manicured neighborhood? What if we miss having houses within touching distance of our own? Should that actually happen (and I have my doubts that it will), then we will own a house that is mortgage free which we can rent out or sell. We can take our savings from being mortgage free and invest it into another house. Of course this is worst case scenario but it is nice to know we have a back up plan just in case.

But, I have faith that God is going to bless our attempts at "owing no man".

Long Term Plans

I decided that I needed to map out what my long term educational goals were for my children. I think it is a good idea to have a plan so that I am not making last minute choices about what to teach only to accidentally leave something out. This list only goes through Brianna graduating so it won’t be exactly the same for the other two. I haven’t decided exactly how to handle that. They will get the same classes just at different grade level which is why I posted the year beside it and not Brianna's grade level.





History Cycle-Using Mystery of History which has cycles with each book having a elementary, Jr high and high school option.

2012 Ancient History (Mystery of History Volume 1)
2013 Middle Ages (Mystery Of History Volume 2)
2014 Renaissance (Mystery of History Volume 3)
2015 Revolutions (Mystery of History Volume 4)
2016 American History and British History (Long way off so haven’t decided which curriculum)
2017 Ancient History
2018 Middle Ages
2019 Renaissance
2020 Revolutions
2021 American History
2022 Civics and Politics

Science Cycle-I might actually combine zoology 2 and 3 so that we can do a year of geology. Or condense one of those years into a single semester and do a semester of geology. Three years zoology just seems like an awful lot. I am debating if I want to use the upper Apologia books because I do not care for Jay Wile, but that remains to be seen later.

2012 Intro to Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Astronomy (Real Science 4 Kids)
2013 Astronomy and Botany (Apologia)
2014 Zoology 1 and 2 (Apologia)
2015 General Science (Apologia)
2016 Physical Science (Apologia)
2017 Biology and Marine Biology (Apologia)
2018 Anatomy and Physiology (Apologia)
2019 Chemistry (Apologia)
2020 Advanced Chemistry (not sure but probably at a college)
2021 Physics (not sure but probably at a college)
2022 Advanced Physics (again probably college)


Math

2012 Teaching Textbooks 3
2013 Teaching Textbooks 4
2014 Teaching Textbooks 5
2015 Teaching Textbooks 6
2016 Teaching Textbooks 7
2017 Teaching Textbooks Pre-algebra
2018 Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
2019 Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2
2020 Teaching Textbooks Geometry
2021 Teaching Textbooks Pre-cal
2022 Teaching Textbooks either calculus or trigonometry (or possibly Math 1301 in college)

English each year will automatically include spelling and vocabulary

2012 Easy Grammar 2
2013 Easy Grammar 3 and beginning writing techniques
2014 Easy Grammar 4 and continuing writing techniques
2015 Easy Grammar 5 and continuing writing techniques
2016 Easy Grammar 6 and Creative Writing (Thinking Abeka but that is a while off)
2017 Daily Grammar 7 and continuing writing techniques
2018 Daily Grammar 8 and research paper-Old World Literature
2019 Daily Grammar 9 and Poetry Anthology- New World Literature
2020 Daily Grammar 10 and Creative Writing-American Literature
2021 Daily Grammar 11 and the Art of Debate-British Literature
2022 Daily Grammar 12 and Research Paper (or English 1301 in college)

Foreign Language



Bible

2012 Life Pac 2
2013 Life Pac 3
2014 Life Pac 4
2015 Life Pac 5
2016 Life Pac 6
2017 Life Pac 7
2018 Life Pac Practical Christianity and Church History
2019 Life Pac New Testament Survey
2020 Life Pac Old Testament Survey
2021 Life Pac Bible Doctrine
2022 Life Pac Christian Faith and Living


Home Economics

2013-2016-Health and Safety
2017-Nutrition and Food Preparation
2018-Sewing Basics and Historical Arts (canning, embroidery and so on)
2019-Cleaning and Home organization
2020-Etequet and Hospitality
2021-Holistic Medicine and First Aid
2022- Finances and Consumer Math

My DH will take care of computer science, though I will also encourage them to take it as a dual enrollment class their senior year since most degrees require a college level computer science course.

Of course all this is subject to change as needed. I will also allow them to chase some self-led interests, but over all this is what I believe they need to have a well rounded school experience with a Biblical world view. Let me know if you see something missing!

Downsizing: The Journey Begins

This is the artist rendering of our current 3200sq ft home

It bit us. The downsizing bug. The one where you realize that things are not as important as memories and memories are not made in big houses where families are so far apart from each other that they only pass one or two times during an evening. They aren't made when mommy sits in the bedroom and daddy is in the other end of the house in the office. They are not made when having so many toys means that none are treated with respect. They aren't made by having 3200 sq ft of home that takes all day just to do a basic clean up in.

Now,  I am not saying that all families who live in big homes have these problems, but our does. Currently our lives are dominated by tasks that do not really create memorable moments but rather barely keep chaos from taking over. I spend my day fighting a losing battle cleaning house while the kids are so overwhelmed by toys that they give up trying to play with any of them. Daddy comes home and has to continue work in his office which is closed away on the other side of the house. I sit in the bedroom watching TV and the kids are now fighting because of how chaotic the upstairs is.

We decided we have had enough. We are getting rid of the chaos in our lives. We are getting rid of the obsession with things. We are downsizing.

On July 16th, 2012 (if all goes according to plan) we will pack up what we need to live, move in with my parents and put our 3200 sqft, in the city, in a manicured subdivision with an HOA, on the market. During this time we will dry in our new, in the country, on 5 acres of land, 1660 sq ft home for which we will pay cash. While we are selling our current home we will slowly work on finishing the new one doing our best not to incur any debt.

We don't know what the market will do for our current home. We have only been here just under 3 years. We may even have to take a small loss on it should it not sell for what we need it to, but even if that happens, we will be mortgage free on the new house and will be able to quickly pay off the small amount we would owe.

So here we are. At the start of a fantastic adventure. One that no doubt will have it's ups and downs. We know that we have some family and friends that will think we are nuts. Right now I am riding the wave of happiness over the thought of being mortgage free. I am sure this feeling will come and go, but we know that this is a chance to live as we believe we should, owing no man.