Homeschool Schedule And Curriculum (1st Year)

I wanted to do a seperate post just on my schedule and the curriculum I have chosen.  I am new to the blogging process when it comes to education.  I have had a personal blog for years, but this is completely different.  I want to share my journey and help other people and I also want to be able to look back and see all the great things my children have done and learned.  This first post still will not be as detailed as I will do in the future.  I will try to highlight some of my favorite books and curriculum so that some of you can make the decision as to whether or not you will use it also.  I may choose to do a Friday post every week about a different book or just use a week to highlight different things I'm using and loving.

  I am hoping that this blog shows other moms that homeschool life is not as scary as it appears at first.  I feared every single thing about being a homeschooler and that my children's education rested solely on my shoulders, but now, for the first time, I feel so confident in the teacher that I am becoming and the choices that I am making and I know all of you out there following this blog, will feel the same way, just give it time.

This is all of the stuff that I have purchased within the last week.  I am trying to do homeschooling on a budget but I am finding that to be a struggle.  I never realized how much stuff teachers have to have just to keep everything going.  I have found some great deals at Books A Million but for the most part I am trying to either swap for free or buy used.  Hopefully I can get a group of moms local that I can try to trade off items so that we stay under budget.  I am also doing some babysitting on the side on some days to try to counter the money that is being spent because we have to stick to a budget.

I went to a local book store called Mr.K's Books in downtown Oak Ridge and I got a great deal on some older books.  I have been reading the book below when I have some down time.  It has given me some good ideas, but I am learning that I just have to do what's best for us and not what everyone else does for them. 

For good behavior, I have chosen to do Incentive charts and "Free" Days.  Once they have filled up one chart with stickers, they get a prize from a prize box.  I have gotten toys mainly from the Dollar Tree and most of them are educational such as puzzles or coloring books.  I also added crayons, markers, and pencils because the kids seem to really enjoy getting new supplies also. Once they have both incentive charts filled with stickers (see below), they can turn it in for a "free" day of no work.  The ways that they receive stickers are -  Random Acts of Kindness, being good a full school day, completing homework and turning it in on time, making an A on a paper, or exhibiting good behavior while outside of the home.

 For bad behavior, we chose time out, sentence writing, paper erasing, and losing free time.  Time out normally last 7 minutes per child in a corner during the time that we are doing something fun such as art or recess.  Sentence writing seems to be the thing they dislike the most.  I normally have the sentence either contain spelling words or something from the bible.  Paper erasing is an idea I got from a local FB page.  You find papers that you would like to reuse that have pencil writing and you make the child sit and erase all the writing.  Normally I do five pages per time, but since I just started, I don't have much to be able to use this as often.  In the future, I hope to have something better than all of this because the children are really outgrowing time out. 

And now to our schedule:

Monday:  9am to 2pm

Tuesday:  9am to 2pm

Wednesday:  9am to 3pm

Thursday:  Noon to 4pm

Friday:  9am to 5pm (outside of home)

Curriculum:

Monday:  Science, Critical Thinking, and Lapbooks

Tuesday: English, Handwriting, and Reading

Wednesday: Math, Spelling, and Review

Thursday: History, SS, PE, and Health

Friday: Field Trips, Library, and Make Up Work

First Week Of Homeschooling in 2013

Our first week went very, very well.  The kids were quiet and followed the rules pretty well.  Due to the local schools being closed for weather, we still didn't get a chance to tell our friends good-bye or let the school know we wouldn't be coming back.  I have emailed both teachers and made things clear, but we still must do the formal paperwork to make things legal.  This is all going on while we are packing and attempting to move into our new home... let's just say hectic but blessed and move on!

We found some "locker blocks" at Walmart on clearance for $4 and I felt it would be the easiest and most organized way to keep their stuff together and make them be accountable for their own books.  I used name tags I got from the Dollar Tree and attached them to the top of the locker.  I also found some blankets on clearance for $2 and decided to allow the boys to buy one and put in their locker for days they are cold or maybe don't feel as well.  Both of my kids are blanket boys and need something to cuddle some days.  My school, my rules.  I will be bringing my blanket as well :)

I struggled to figure out how to incorporate our lunch time within our required hours because we are on a tight schedule.  I will post more about that in the next post.  I do five hours of homeschooling a day so that we do not have to do actual work on Friday's and can focus on our field trips or Library trips.  This may not work for some people and some days we will have to rearrange, but for now, that is what works for us.  The boys have decided they want to watch movies during lunch time and I think eating in the classroom and staying focused will be better than allowing them to go eat in the kitchen and then try to come back to class.  This way if I have a video for that day, they will still be working on something educational and if not, I have alot of videos that I want them to watch about bullies, religion, sports, etc..

I found a tornado maker at Rite Aid on clearance for $3 and it even came with a Storm Chasers video so we chose to work on that this week.  The maker is so awesome!  It has real sounds and you can turn it to different sizes and it looks so real.  You can even

Our first week turned out to be so much fun!  I loved the light I saw in my children's eyes as they began to realize that the world is their classroom and we don't have to put limits on what we can learn about!  I look forward to doing this for many many more days to come! :)

My GoodBye Letter.

To All My Readers,

I have been thinking and praying about this blog for a few weeks after realizing that although I am an open person and I don't mind sharing my story, there are some people in my story along the way who are hurt by it being public to anyone who would like to read it.  I have also posted things that I am not proud of as a Christian, a wife, a mom, a daughter, and a friend.  I think that everyone goes through that dark time in their life when someone needs to come along and shake some sense into them and after really pondering where I want the future of my family to go, I have made the decision to stop writing this blog. 

My intention for this blog was simple, I needed a place to share my story and to be free to be me.  You really aren't able to tell the full story on Facebook or MySpace so I felt that having a blog would help people understand me better.  Moving to Crossville at the age of 18 and not knowing a soul made me nervous... and the town was not very welcoming.  I felt that people saw me with my blonde hair and my big boobs and they made an assumption of who I was - and you know maybe some of them were right, but some were also very wrong - and I wanted a place to redeem myself and say "this is who I am, take it or leave it."  If people were going to hate me, I wanted them to hate me instead of the person they thought I was and so my original blog was born.  Over the years, I have written about both happiness and pain and looking back, I have grown in so many ways, but I have also made some really bad decisions.  Some of those were out of jealousy, some out of pain, some out of not knowing how to grieve, and some were just purely mean on my part.  I have said some things that now make me cringe and made decisions that effected my whole family and not just myself. 

I know there is no way to go back and erase the past, but today I am pledging to move forward.  I choose to be happy again.  Part of that decision means that I need to be more private with my thoughts and decisions and really think things over before voicing my opinion or thought.  I am going to try to reach out and ask for forgiveness to alot of people and I hope that they also choose to forgive because this is truly in my heart of hearts how I really feel.  I do feel sorry for some of the things that I have done and said and I do from the bottom of my heart want to make it right.  It will not be easy, but it is my decision and regret and I must live with it no matter the outcome. 

I really appreciate all the nice comments, the words of encouragement, and the emails I have been sent since starting to really get deep into my past and who I truly am, not just what people see.  I realize that I am far from perfect and that I have made alot of mistakes, especially in the last five years of my life.  I have been suffering from severe social and general anxiety along with depression, and health issues as well.  That doesn't excuse my behavior, but it may help some people understand more of why I do and say the things that I do.  I have managed to make a few enemies and lose a few friends along the way and I don't put all the blame on them, I realize that I have done alot to hurt the people that had my back - and I am very, very sorry to all of you who are reading this and have been hurt by my actions. 

I am moving forward with my life in so many ways... I have absolutely loved having this blog and sharing my story with everyone, but for the sake of my life, my sanity, my family, and where I am at in my life today, I am deleting my blogs.  I have also cleared out most of the people from my FB page, not because of what they have done, but just for the sake of my family.  I want us to focus on us instead of everyone else - and I don't want anything and everything I say to start a battle with someone else.  I am done fighting, I have no fight left in me at this point.  I have lost alot of people that I truly cared about and nothing is worth that. 

In this span of about two years, I have really struggled with my depression.  After losing our precious baby in May 2011, a piece of me left with her and I will probably never get my whole self back.  I know that God had a plan that day, but I struggle to see the bigger picture.  Then, I lost my grandmother and experienced another tragic loss.  Our family has seen alot of ups and downs... and then when DJ lost his job it seemed the life I knew was gone - and maybe it is just that - gone.  I'm never going to be back to myself until I can heal and I cannot heal when their continues to be turmoil so that is why I'm here to say goodbye. 

I will continue to be on FB for the few close friends and family that I completely trust and at some point I may be back to the blogging world, but for now I just pray that healing and comfort comes and I am able to get one good night's sleep that I haven't had since 2011. 

Prayers and Hugs,
Ashley

Matt Turner, You Are An Angel.

The blogging world has been turned upside down and we have learned that one of our blogging friends, Julee Turner, has lost her husband at the young age of 32. 

 

You can read their full story on her blog at mattandjuleeturner.blogspot.com.  I have followed this sweet lady through her infertility struggles to help me get through my own battle - and along the way she has become more like a friend than just a writer of a blog.  I feel like that about so many of the blogging friends that I have made along the way. 

 

I sat here last night and poured my heart out onto this blog and was really feeling down and out.  I actually went to bed crying my little eyes out and unable to sleep.  This morning I felt a little better and planned to come blog a post titled "the aftermath" but before, I decided to check up on some of my favorite blogs...

 

As I read what Kelly had written over on Kelly's Korner, I realized that Julee has lost her beloved husband and the father of her 11 month old daughter, Preslee.  My heart ached for her and her precious daughter and all the many, many people that this man had touched with his life.  

 

If you feel in your heart that you would like to do something for this special family, please visit www.kellyskornerblog.com for a list of silent auctions and bank accounts set up for his wife and daughter.  Please continue to pray for this family as they deal with his horrific tragedy.  

Matt, you are an angel looking down on your wife and child.  May you rest in peace. 

Little Readers

Now that Ace is in first grade, his class walks once a week to a little retirement community called Jamestowne and they get to read to twenty of the cutest little elderly people...plus they get alot of hugs and kisses too!  I didn't want to overwhelm the kids by taking lots of pictures but I just had to get one of Ace on his very first time there.  He did a wonderful job reading and I am so lucky that I get to go with him every single week.  

 And this is his friend Mackenzie that also got the chance to read to me (you can see some of the lovely ladies in the background).  She is one of the best readers in the class, but she is so shy, I just love having time with some girls since I'm surrounded by nothing but boys at home :)

In a few weeks, Jamestowne is surprising the kids with a Halloween party and I hope to take some pictures then because it should be alot of fun.  I am so excited to get to see my children grow and learn and become young gentlemen.  I am my children's number one fan!