Thursday, August 25, 2011

It has ARRIVED....much to my surprise EARLIER than expected

I have to admit since we sent SL back and ordered MFW I was depressed.   Not because of my decision but because I had to WAIT.  I don't wait nicely.  I get anxious, depressed - really the Lord needs to help me here sometimes.  Last night I was talking to my sweet husband around 8 PM saying I was excited that MFW had been ordered and shipped and was wondering when it would arrive.   Thinking to myself....I ordered it on Friday,  it will probably arrive some 10 days later or so.  At least that is what the MFW website says, 7-10 days and we are always at the tail end if not past the end day.   So, it was 8 pm last night and I was in a funk because I wanted our books and wanted to get started....did I say I hate waiting?   I ordered it Friday and here it was Wednesday and I just knew it would be a few more days, probably past the weekend.     Bummed.


Shawn went out at 9 PM to put our hens up.   He comes in a few minutes later with a BOX.  I asked him, " What did you order now?".   He said, " nothing."   What??? Could it be?? Naaaaa....but what else could it be?  It was MY FATHERS WORLD.   It was here!!!!!   I screamed for the kids who were already dressed and cleaned up for bed and in bed quietly reading.   Everyone was so excited!   It was better than Christmas morning around here!  


This weekend I will purchase our supplies for the first 2 weeks.....we start Monday!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

It's like a kid waiting for Christmas!!!!

I ordered MFW last week and here I sit, excited as can be , for our box to come in.   I can not wait to get started learning about the different cultures of different countries this year.   So many neat activities and plans to make for parties with our home school friends.   Our first party - FIESTA - in week 3 and 4, I think, we will be studying Mexico , and we will be making all sorts of Mexican crafts and foods and at the end of our study we will hold a fiesta for our home school group.   Since we did Sonlight the first 3 weeks and just ordered MFW we are in limbo.   We are still doing our LA and math and Latin and Astronomy but being without our core I feel naked.   The core is always our favorite part of our day and it feels odd doing everything else we are doing,   

What else are we doing this year?
CLE Math 2 for Hannah

Teaching Textbooks Math 5 for Christopher

Our science is Apologia Astronomy

Prima Latina for Latin

Growing with Grammar f

Learning cursive with A Reason for Handwriting


I think that about covers it.    


So, while I wait for MFW stuff to come in we are keeping plenty busy.   I will continue to patiently wait for our core to come in, excited as a kid at Christmas time.  

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Starting the 2011-2012 school year over.....

Last year we used MFW - Adventures and we had a wonderful year!!!   I don't know why I didn't originally choose it for this year.   I have always wanted to try Sonlight.    So, this year I decided to go ahead and order it and since they have a 6 month guarantee I thought well, if I don't enjoy it and my kids don't enjoy it I will send it back.   We just finished week 3 and guess what? We aren't enjoying it like we did MFW.  It is just too much literature.   Don't get me wrong.  Literature is wonderful and my kids LOVE to read but it was at the point where reading was just not fun anymore.   So, I prayed on what to do and in my heart God answered go back to MFW, which I have done.   I placed my order on Friday and should receive it next week hopefully.  We will be starting the 5 year cycle MFW - Exploring Countries and Cultures ( ECC).  I feel so at peace now that it is ordered and that I know this will be what we are doing this school year, so I know it was the right choice.   I never had this same feeling with Sonlight.   Sonlight may be a great fit for some families but not for mine.   I tried it and even though it's not our thing we have gained some great readers from it, we decided to send everything back except the readers.   I think the kids have a whole year of books sitting here now and next year I can just sell them to someone else wanting to do Sonlight.     


This year we will be spending 2 weeks per country, learning about the culture of each, doing hands on activities - which my kids really missed with Sonlight.   I will be posting them as we go along~


Can't wait to get started!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Most Important Message

 I have to really wonder about this world we live in.


 
 I heard through the news that 2 billion people were estimated in watching the Royal Wedding.  2 BILLION?   Let me just say we are not part of that number because I honestly could care less about it.  There are many more important issues in this world to think about and there are my kids who I would rather pay attention to than a Royal Wedding.   I wish them many years of happiness but I do not see what all the hype is about.  It just seems that 2 BILLION ....well.....I will continue.

Then there are Super Bowls, World Series and other big hype sports events, and let's not forget politics  Again, I do not participate in watching them because I do not give a flying hoot.   I don't even know which title goes with each game.  My husband may care, but even so not very much. 
 

From what I have seen more people care what is going on in sports and on TV than attend church every Sunday morning.   I personally find that extremely worrisome and don;t understand.   I guess we are the ones who are different.  Our lives are centered around what we find important, Jesus and what He did for us, in reading the Word and loving one another.  

Even our Pastor, Patrick Payton, said in this city of ,100,000 people, 75,000 don't attend church and out of that number most have not heard the message or read a bible.   
 
 
I am proud to say I am in the minority of this world.  I may not be perfect, I sin but I am saved by HIS grace.



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Having to trust in God

Is it me or is this hard, having to trust in Him, lean on Him and know He wants and will provide what is best for us?  We have not had regular income since September and now Shawn is working as an independent contractor for Schlumberger through Louisiana Transport.   It's been almost 2 weeks and the company ows him almost $3.000 that we have not seen a penny of.   We have all of $400 left.  How long is that going to last?  The hold up?  Nobody really knows.   Everyone is placing the blame and nobody has any answers yet he keeps working.  I have gotten sick twice already due to the stress and all my husband can say is PRAY.   How is he so calm about all this?   I am a Christian, I place all my Faith in the Lord but when it comes to finances I FAIL every single time.  I don't trust HIM.   I want to!   I really do, I just can not let go of it.

How do you hand things over to our King? Our Savior? Our Father? 

Am I the only one who can't do it for whatever reason?

Blog Round 2

Here I am again trying this blogging thing.  We started last year and got into it about a month before Shawn had his accident that left him on disability for 6 months and as an ever constant extra person to take care of  my heart just wasn't into blogging our daily home school activities. 

Tomorrow, April 28, is our last day of this school year.  Hannah will be entering 2nd grade next year and Christopher will be entering 3rd.  This year has been wonderful and for our first year home schooling went better than expected.   Kids, and I, have learned so much and I truly enjoyed learning American History all over again.  We loved all our projects, our lessons and even math was successful for both kids.  Hannah had me a bit worried more than once but all I could do was pray she would "get" it and sure enough she has pulled through.   Amazingly that girl can be lost on every single lesson and still ace her tests.  She's just different.  

My Fathers World, was a big hit this year and we look forward to returning to it maybe in another year.   The next level of MFW, Exploring Countries and Cultures seemed a little advanced for Hannah so for this next year we ordered Sonlight. , where we will be starting with Introduction to World History.  We already have received our books for the next year and they look exceptional.   Mom already started reading them in order to be prepared for our lessons starting in August.   We are doing Cores B and C, Hannah will continue on to Sazon Math 3 and Christopher is going into Teaching Textbooks 5.

Sonlight is more literature based than MFW was and as much as the kids love to read I think it will be a blessing to us.

More to come tomorrow as we start our last day of school with a breakfast at IHOP.