Homeschooling decisions and sunflowers

We had a very busy weekend. It started on Friday, as all good weekends will do.

I had been lamenting to Thoughfulmom about some decisions I needed to make in my schooling. Mini-Me wants to learn more than just the basics - and I needed to figure out a way to teach her.

We had been trying KONOS - and while it's a great program - it wasn't working for us. Part of it was the fact that I never had the time (or maybe the fore-thought?) to plan very far ahead and get all the supplies we'd need. I had all the books etc...from the Library - but then something would happen.

Like this last time we were going to do seasons/calendars, etc. And ended up with ear infections in the wee ones. I just couldn't make it work. Every time I looked at a lesson plan, I saw confusion. Which I know doesn't come from God as He's the author of order. So I began to look for another good thing for us.

So Thoughtful (ever the researcher) hooked me up with My Father's World. She knew the reason we liked Konos was the hands on aspect - but we weren't like that Baby Season and Konos weren't meshing well.

I'm proud to announce that we're going to do Adventures in My Father's World.
*L*I'm a KONOS dropout. It's so much fun to have a plan in action!! I'm not sorry we tried it because I still like the thought of all that it entails. We're keeping the volumes that I have - but we're moving on to something else. So if you found my blog because of the Konos loop..sorry.

I did decide that we're going to stick with ABeka Book for phonics, math and writing for G.
Mini-Me is going into 3rd Grade. She will still be doing ABeka math but their natural progression is to drop the intense phonics workout and pick up grammar instead.

She's thrilled, by the way, to hear that I've ordered her 3rd grade books. She was quite concerned that she might be stuck in 2nd grade forever. (I found out today that my books from ABeka weighed 28lbs!!)

On Friday, I ordered all our curriculum for the next year.

The other decision made was that I'll be implementing a summer school. The kids will be thrilled, I hope, but because of that I'm trying my best to finish the '06/'07 school year finished by the end of May. Today was not successful - as I'm sure, you've heard. Tomorrow will be better. G said tonight, "Mom, are we going to do LOTS of schoolwork tomorrow? I like doing lots of schoolwork."

On Saturday the big kids and I went to the Eye doctor for check ups. Mini-me gleefully reported to her dad that she "passed her test". Which tickled us both - as it was a check up and not a test.

G doesn't need glasses yet - but he's a bit near sighted. If he'd been in public school that little bit of a prescription would have caused him to need glasses. Another plus for Homeschooling. No glasses necessary.

We went to buy a wedding gift for a couple at church and then came home and had lunch.

Then the work began. We have this flower bed on the west side of the house. I'm still not sure why it's there, except they didn't put the sidewalk close to the house. It's had nothing but grass in it since the few boxwood shrubs died out. (I don't like box woods, by the way) So we worked on digging out the grass - and stirring up the soil and mixing it with peat soil - and then we planted Sunflowers. It's a very sunny place. So we planted 3 kids of sunflowers. I'm hoping the kids will be able to watch them grow and enjoy God's creation.

Remember, we planted the sunflowers Saturday. Sunday morning, mini-me says "Can I go out and see what the sunflowers look like?" "Sure" says I, "they'll look like mud."
She would not be deterred though - she wanted to see them for herself. She was thrilled to have the chance to water them today.

And *drats* I forgot to take pictures of the whole thing. I could kick myself.

The other major decision we've made is to hunt down speech therapy for Jman. He's almost 3 -- April 5th is his b-day -- and he's not able to complete a whole sentence. And can't say many sounds. I know he hears us - and I know that he wants to communicate because he cries and hits when we don't understand. But for some reason - he just can't get his tongue to work out the words.

So I spent a lot of time on the phone today calling and trying to find a speech therapist. I was going from the book provided by our insurance - and the first two I called, I had no answer and got weird answering machines. The third one I called bothered me because she was telling me I had to do something that my insurance told me I didn't need to do (get a referral). The fourth one has a very friendly lady in the office and is a go-getter. I can't wait to meet her. I can't wait to get my J-man to talking either.

Mini-E might just talk first.

So we've got an appointment the first week in April.
Gosh - is that next week?
It sounds so far away!!

Where in the world did March go??
Did I loose it in the laundry pile?
Do you have it?