This might be worth following...

One of my classes this semester is Advertising Ethics, so I more than a little interested in Donald Miller has to say on the topic in his new series Commercialism and Faith. 

Here's a quote:

A standard formula used in many commercials is twofold: 1. To illicit a thought in the viewer that their life is not satisfactory and then 2. To convince the viewer their life could be made satisfactory with the introduction of said product.

Not that I am equating to two, but it is interesting to me that sometimes our presentation of the Gospel is not so very different from a commercial in the sense that we try to convince someone they have a need and that need is fulfilled in Christ.  This is something I struggle with; the notion that we believe in Christ because He fills some need we have; the appeal to emotions of guilt and shame, and the promise of feeling joyful and at peace.   As if we only come to faith because of gain and not because we believe Christ is who He claimed to be and has done what He claims to have done.  Still, I know there is more to faith than pure intellect; there must be an element of emotion, or a relationship cannot exist.  This is difficult for me, as by nature I am rather wary of emotions.  I do not like being manipulated by them, which is perhaps why my daughter's flair for the dramatic bothers me so much!  I fight against showing them or even having them at all.  My sister-in-law wears her emotions on her sleeve; there is never any doubt how she feels, whether happy, sad, excited, in love.  I am somewhat envious; I wish I felt comfortable being that vulnerable, especially with my God. 

Book Review: Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman

I am not exactly a huge fan of Christian parenting books, though since becoming a parent I have read quite a few: Sheparding a Child's Heart; The Strong-Willed Child; How to make Children Mind without Losing Yours; Parenting with Love and Logic; and I'm sure there's a few I can't remember.  The authors generally have some pretty good ideas about how to raise children, but somehow the implementation of those ideas falls somewhat short of the promised outcome in the book, usually due to my lack of perserverance.  I have a really bad habit of giving up when something doesn't work right away, a habit I must strive to overcome on a daily basis.  This is especially the case when it comes to parenting our children. I have "tried" so many different methods and I think this has created some frustration in both the children and myself. 

What I found refreshing about Plowman's book is there are very little methods and a whole lot of scripture.  A number of points stood out me:

1.  Sin is serious, even in a child.
How many times have a snickered at the sin my child has committed?  Sin is never funny to God and it shouldn't be funny to me.  I also habitually make excuse for sinful behavior in my children: "Oh, he's just tired", or "She has a cold".  Yes, it is important to be understanding, but sin is still sin even when we are tired or sick.

2.  Behaviour is an outpouring of what is in the heart.
I've read this before, but I think it just sank in this time. 

3.  When giving a reproof always offer a way of escape.
In other words, don't stop with telling my children what they have done wrong, teach them what they could have done instead.  Plowman also stresses having the child practice the way of escape after they are reproved.

4.  Check your motives before you administer any discipline, whether by reproof or use of the rod.
Ugh.  Why does have to come back to me?  This little principle really challenges me to evaluate if my child's behaviour is truly sin or if it is just annoying and inconvienent to me.

5.  If at all possible, do not embarrass your child by administering discipline in front of others.

6.  Take the time to talk with your child, not only to your child.  Learn to listen!
I'm a lecturer, so this is hard, but I'm working on it!

7.  Finally, God's Word is sufficient for teaching, training, reproving, encouraging and I need to use it!

Overall, Plowman does a wonderful job directing the reader to scripture and providing some examples of what this all looks like in real life.  However, there are some sample conversations that seems a little unrealistic, or perhaps her children are just more mature than mine.  For instance, she asks her four or five year old if she is would delight in her brother's sadness over her taking a toy away and the little girl replies no she would not.  Well, if you ask my five year old if causing her brother saddness makes her happy....well, let's just say her answer isn't no; but like I said, it may be more of a question of maturity and my parenting abilities, than Plowman's example.

Why Homeschooling?

A few months ago I read Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling, a very interesting report by a man critical, but not completely against, homeschooling.  His main concern is how homeschooling families define civic participation and duty to country.  Some families homeschool because they feel the government and, by extension, the public school is hostile to their Christian values; therefore, they desire their children to spend the formative years in a more supportive environment.  Some completely shelter their children from the world, filtering all things and exposing them only to those opinions and beliefs which match their own.  Others homeschool so their children can experience an individualized education, learning at their own pace and in their own style.  Some felt, as Christians, our civic duty is to make America a "Christian nation", typically by electing officials who makes laws out of our Christian morality.  Others understand that one cannot legislate a relationship with Christ, and while they do vote based on their beliefs, they are not proponents of forcing Christian behavior on non-Christians. 

Overall, I found Kuznman's report helpful and informing; some families he interviewed provided examples of what I truly want our homeschooling experience to be like and others are examples of what I want to avoid.  For me, it is important for all subjects to be taught from a biblical worldview, while also allowing discussion and debate on opinions and viewpoints that do not agree with that worldview.  I believe that instead of pulling out of the world, Christians need to engage the world and be able to understand and have compassion on those who think differently from us. 

Of course this brings up the question: "If I believe it is important to engage the world, why am I deciding to homeschool?  Wouldn't it be better for your children to be in public school, since that would be a great opportunity to engage the world?".   Yes, the public school is a great place to engage the world, but do I expect my 5-year old to engage the world with much success?  No, not really.  This is not to say that parents who choose public school are doing their children a disservice, some children are better suited for the environment than others.  Kayleigh is already beginning to believe her teacher over her parents, and that concerns me.  She actually told me she thought her teacher knows more than I do!  She probably does in some things, but ack!  Kayleigh is also very concerned with fitting in, although her choice of dress some days causes me to question this concern :)  And don't get me started on the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing already starting Kindergarten...ugh.

So, if my goal is to somewhat control my children's exposure to the world, how will they learn to engage?  This is a major concern of mine.  I do not want my children to grow up niave and unable to cope outside the protective walls of our family. Therefore one of my goals while homeschooling is to be involved in a Co-Op and, perhaps, a sport not associated with the church.  In searching for Co-Ops I came across Denton Classical Education Cooperative and about jumped for joy!  Denton Classical is not a strictly Christian Co-Op, although most of their members are Christian, and that makes it appealing for a couple reasons: one, it allows for open discussion and debate; two, there is no denominational bent, which I see in many of the other Co-Ops around here. This area has a number of Christian Co-Ops, but frankly some of their codes of conduct are a little too strict for my taste--I really don't care if kids have more than one earring in each ear, or that boys wear their hair long, or that someone has a visible tatoo.  Another reason I like Denton Classical is the most of the subjects they offer are core subjects and not just enrichment: history, science, literature, and writing are the core, with PE, art, and Spanish for enrichment.  This will actually lighten my load a bit, since science and history projects will be done through the Co-Op and I will not need to spend time trying to find all the stuff to do them!  As for sports, we haven't quite decided what to do on that front.  We would really like to get our kids into gymnastics, but that can get rather expensive.  I'm thinking of just letting them play a season is all the different sports and then seeing what they like best. 

Blog Musings and Big Decisions

I'm taking an Internet Marketing course this semester and one of the key components of successful sites is regular updating; apparently I'm not too concerned with this blog having success!

It is difficult to write in a public forum, especially we you must look your readers in the eye at some point. You either must be painfully honest to their face, or keep your mouth shut online! There are many things I would love to write about, but putting them out there for the world to see just isn't something I can, nor want to do. So then, I must ask myself what do I want to accomplish with this blog:

Is it mainly a place to keep family and friends updated?
Is it a place to record my thoughts and reactions to certain events?
Is it a place for creative writing?

You get my drift. Guess it could be a combination of those. Anyways...this really wasn't what I was going to post about, it just popped into my brain.

Here's what I really wanted to post about:

We are officially homeschooling next year! While this year has been a little easier with Kayleigh at school all day, I am incredibly excited about having her home come June! This is not an indictment on the schools here, nor is it a reflection on the quality of education my children would receive from them. I firmly believe one gets as much as one puts in, and even if the system is flawed, a solid education is possible within the public school system. Furthermore, I am quite grateful that many children are getting more of education than possible if public schooling did not exist.

So why am I choosing to homeschool then? My decision, which Justin fully supports though he may not agree wholeheartedly, has to do more with the environment the education takes place in. This may seem trivial, but Kayleigh is still struggling with waking up in the morning and I would love to be able to allow her to sleep until her body tells her to awake. I think my main drive to homeschool is to teach through the lens of God's Word. Not that this can only be accomplished by homeschooling; I know many parents of children in public schools that do and have done an amazing job teaching their children to think biblically. For our family I think homeschooling is the best way, at least right now and most likely through middle school depending, of course, on the kids. Lastly, there are little things that will be nice: taking a day off when the weather is beautiful or when it snows 12 inches; ability to take vacations during non-peak times (cheaper); time for some major character training (me and the kids).

I have more, but Justin is home from his work-out and needs my attention :)

Can't sleep.



Too much swimming around in my head.



Thinking Moonlight Sonata might help, but playing the piano isn't possible due to the lack of a sound proof room. Something tells me Justin wouldn't appreciate Beethoven after midnight, so I'm trying some warm milk with vanilla instead.



Let's see if logging what's on my mind helps any......

• William and Sammi--they are fostering three adorable children. Went from no kids to three kids overnight. Watching them has given me a greater respect for the job a foster parent has. Loving your own is one thing, but I think there is a special place in God's Kingdom for foster parents; they are heroes and I am blessed to call these two friends.

• My sister is getting married in June. They start premarital counseling soon.

• My daughter has a very "woe-is-me" attitude of late and it's driving me batty. Nothing is fair and apparently I don't love her because I won't let her do whatever she wants. Is this normal for a five-year old?

• Studying Hebrews for the second time in one year....hmmmm.

That's not all, but some things are better left unsaid in a public forum.

Milk not really working.

I'm tired, but still not sleepy.

Maybe I should hop on the elliptical; then I would have to shower and that would wake up Justin.

Stink!

Today I'm......

• concerned, but laughing at something Kayleigh said yesterday.....she put on some clip on earrinsg and asked if she could wear them to school...her exact words were, "All the boys will want to be around me if I wear earrings". Funny, but disturbing coming from my little girl.
• wondering how I can teach my little girl not to care so much about what other people think and say. Should a five-year old really be concerned that people will make fun of her and say she looks stupid? Ugh.
• remembering this day 10 years ago....a gentle whisper, open arms and the words, "You can always come home".....Thank you, Lord!
• trying to figure out why some pastors feel the need to insert random political commentary into sermons....irritating, especially when has nothing to do with the sermon topic!
• missing Flower Mound...well not really Flower Mound, but the people there. I know it takes time, but I'd like to feel at home again someday!
• taking suggestions on ways our family can serve the community together....we're thinking food pantry, any other ideas?

A recent discussion at the McKinney Diner has me thinking and evaluating my thoughts on the roll my child's school district should play in their lives. Now I'm not talking about teachers, coaches, sponsors, etc.; I'm focusing on the district and its governing body as a whole.

The discussion at the Diner centered around random drug testing (not what his post was about, but ya know how that goes), and, at first, I struggled with the argument against the testing, but then I got to thinking about how it could play out. For instance, right now the testing applies to only those involved in extra-curricular activites, but it probably won't be long before it includes the whole student body, after all the point is not really student-protection, but deterring those who don't partake and catching those who do. I mean, smoking pot while on the chess team isn't putting anyone but yourself in danger.

Take it further along, and now the police are pulling over random motorists for testing...might seem a bit extreme, but it could happen. As it stands right now, police must suspect a driver is under the influence. In other words, the driver must be exhibiting behaviors indicative of drug/alcohol use. I'm not saying driving under the influence isn't reprehensible, but here's the thing....there is a reason police aren't allowed to just pull us over randomly and without cause.

Here's another interesting case....

Keller student faces discipline for posting 'To Die' list on Facebook

I get it....I do. Would I be concerned if my child's name was on the list? Yes, I would! Would I be concerned if my child was the one who wrote the list? Definitely! But this is not an issue for the school district to deal with, this is a parenting issue. The kid likely wrote the list off campus while not representing his school, therefore the school has no business disciplining him for the list. Yeah, it's scary and the kid probably should talk to someone about his feelings, but allowing the district to discipline him opens some doors I'd rather stay shut. Parenting my children is my responsibility not the school districts.

What about parents who don't parent? Well, I've been thinking on that one too. What if instead of telling my kids to stay away from the "bad" kids, I instead encouraged them seek out opportunities to befriend them. What if I opened my doors to these kids whose parents choose to, or life circumstances have caused to, slack in their responsibilities. Yes, I want to protect my children from negative influences, but we are to be light and light shines brightest in darkness. I'm not saying you allow any and all forms of darkness in and we do need to teach our children to be wise in choosing their closet friends. Still, there's a statistic a friend of mine shared a couple weeks ago that keeps rolling around in my head....95% of Christians have never shared their faith with a non-believer. Well, how can you if you only surround yourself with other Christians! I am totally guilty of this...of not seeking out the non-believers around me....of hiding in my little holy huddle and wanting my children to do the same.

Just some thoughts.....

I love FREE YARN!!!!!!


There's been a drought in baby gifts for me to make, so I actually have had the time to finally work on some stuff for me and my kids! Yea! Of course, now it seems that everyone I know is preggo, so the drought is over.....a little jealous of all those round-bellied ladies!

This blanket was mostly made from scrap yarn my Granny gave me. The pattern is from Crochet Today Jan/Feb 2008, but instead of a using one color like the pattern suggests, I decided to randomly place different colored squares. I think it turned out rather nice!

Over the summer, my sister gave me two HUGE bags of yarn from her future grandma-in-law. When I finally had the chance to sort through it, I noticed I had quite a variety of blues and pinks......PERFECT! This is the boy's blanket; pattern is from Crochet Today Nov/Dec 2008. It looks like a lot of work, but I actually finished it in about a week and a half! I think he likes it!

I just started Kayleigh's PINK blanket, plus I have some baby gifts to get crackin' on, so more pictures will be coming.....as long as my wrist and hands don't give out!

If you ever find you have some yarn laying around collecting dust, my yarn closet always has room! Yes, that's right, I have a yarn CLOSET!

• Kayleigh has a little boyfriend. His name is Luke and she likes the way his hair is. They hold hands during recess and spend class-time looking at each other with googly eyes. The googly eyes get bad enough that her teacher has to tell them to stop! It's cute! On the way home from school I ask her who she plays with during the day and the answer is always, with a sheepish grin, "L-U-K-E"...adorable! If you see Kayleigh, just pretend you don't know about Luke....she gets rather annoyed when we mention it to others.

• Justin has successfully bribed William to be "Daddy's boy" instead of my boy :( He's still my buddy, but no longer my boy. Darn Star Wars Legos!

• William's new favorite phrases are: "Seriously, mommy" and "That hav-yor's not a-po-pi-ate". He also knows how to spell his name! Yea!

Thoughts, thoughts, more thoughts, and some questions.....

• On Kayleigh and school........

It has become apparent that I have given birth to a "mini-me"! Kayleigh comes home from school requesting "homework" everyday and is especially excited when her teacher gives her worksheets to complete at home. She walks in the door, pulls out her folder and gets to work without me saying a word. Of course, she rarely has any "homework" from her teacher, so I spend about an hour or so a week finding worksheets for her to do. She is way beyond the curriculum for reading and slightly ahead in math, but I am trying to keep an open mind and see how this year progresses. There are things that concern me: 1. She is having a rough time getting up in the morning, which could be just because she has a body clock like mine, 2. She has brought home a couple worksheets that she has purposefully mark incorrect answers on; I say purposefully because I know she understands the concept on the worksheet and when I ask her about it, she replies "Sometimes I just do things wrong".

She loves the social aspects of school, especially getting invited to birthday parties! At the moment she seems more interested in playing with the boys than the girls, which is totally fine by me.

We started "afterschooling", which is just a fancy word for enrichment, last week. This year we are reading about History from the Creation through the fall of Rome, studying Life Science, beginning piano lessons and dabbling in some art appreciation and drawing. It sounds like a lot, but we don't do everything on the same day. Monday and Wednesday are History, Tuesday and Thursday are Science, and Friday is piano lesson and art. Of course I am beginning to ask myself at what point does enrichment need to turn into full-time homeschooling? In other words, if I am finding myself having to supplement in Math and Reading, and she is loving the History and Science, at what point does it make more sense to bring her home? My one concern with that is her social needs. Kayleigh loves being around other kids and adults, so that would be my one challange in homeschooling her, other than my own selfish desire for a quiet house!

• On our new digs.....

I love our new home, but I am beginning to miss FloMo! Well not really FloMo, but the closeness to our families and friends that are still there. Driving 20 miles doesn't seems like much, but with construction and what not, it's a hassle and not fun! Plus, Little Elm is in the boonies! The closet Payless is 30 minutes away and Kohl's is 20 minutes! We have a Wal-mart and Target nearby, but that's about it. Coming from an area that has just about every kind of shopping you can think of within a 5 mile radius, this stinks! I also miss the Lewisville Library which has a much bigger selection of books that Frisco or Little Elm. The Frisco Library has a coffee and snack shop, so I guess it's ok.

• On the church we are visiting.....

Still not sure. We started visiting right when the pastor was starting a series on Spiritual Disciplines, which has been interesting, but I really want to see how he teaches from a book of the Bible. The pastor's style is not my ideal, but if his content is truth, I'm not really concerned with style. Truth be told I prefer our former senior pastor's style and I miss the way he taught the Word without gimmics and voices and elaborate Power Points; not that all that stuff is bad, it's just not what I prefer.

I am not a big fan of combined birthday parties for siblings, but due to the move in July, Kayleigh missed out on a birthday party so we threw her and William one on Sunday. I think the highlight was the wonderful cakes my dear friend Marilee helped me put together! She did most of the work, but I did mix the icing for her and decorate some super cute R2D2 cupcakes that unfortunately didn't get in the pics! Here's some pics...

Princess Leia

If I have to tell you who this is, you are in need of serious help!

My hats off to those who make cakes for a living...it's hard work! Marilee and I slaved away for over five hours and that didn't include baking the cakes!

In other news.....

Kayleigh is loving school! At least I think she is, as she is somewhat closed mouthed when I ask what goes on during the day. I think she is just enjoying have a period of her day that doesn't include an annoying little brother and her mom! She does act like she misses me, so that's comforting! I am still getting used to not knowing what she is up to for 7 hours of the day. Seriously, for five years I knew exactly what she what doing all day, so it's kinda like ripping a band-aid off; it has to be done, but it doesn't exactly feel good!

I now must go wake-up some kiddos and sit in the carpool line!

Here's some pictures! I don't have much time.....will write more later!

Kayleigh at the Wiggles Concert! Quote: "This is the best day of my life!"

A picture of the playroom /school room!

Kayleigh sitting at her desk at SCHOOL!

Doesn't she look so sweet and innocent!

That's more like the Kayleigh I know!

We've Moved.

Still no internet yet, hence lack of posting. But at least we're 98% settled in. It's pretty swell.

We're Moving.....for real this time!

If all goes well, we will be closing on our current house tomorrow and moving to Little Elm on Monday! We looked at at least ten houses in this area, mostly Highland Shores, but the only one we really liked was pulled off the market two days after we offered on it. Stink! We thought about stalking the house and sending menacing letters to the owner to get her to sell, but figured that might not go over too well :). Nothing else in this area really stacked up, so we started looking in Little Elm for two reasons: houses are newer, and the market there isn't so great, so the houses are cheaper. We found the perfect house for our family and are super excited!!! The one feature I really love about the house is the kid area is completely separated from the common areas by a long hallway. The kids also have a large playroom flanked by their bedrooms. Not that I don't want my kids around me, but it will be nice for them to have a place to go (or a place for me to send them to) when we start to grate on each others nerves! The one thing I don't like about the house: no trees! Well, there is one tree out front, but it's small and scrawny. I'm going to miss the trees and the shade at our current house.

I will say I'm a little anxious about the move. I've lived in the FlowerPlex most of my 30 years (lived in Sherman and Fort Worth for a year a piece, that's it). I know where everything is here; I know all the back ways to avoid traffic; I know the places to shop, the places to eat, etc. Little Elm is only 20 miles away from here, but it's still moving somewhere completely foreign to me and that's just a little scary! I told Justin he's going to have to buy me a GPS device so I don't get horribly lost with two children in the car. I already scoped out where the Library is, so we are good on that count at least! It also means finding a new church.

I'm still going to do childcare, at least until William goes to school. Coincidentally (aka God planned it), Justin's mom got a teaching position in Prosper ISD, which is not too far from Little Elm, so I already have a contact for getting childcare clients! In fact, I might already have one or two!

The view from the breakfast room this morning

Massive wind + crappy tree = Reason to bust out the chainsaw!

We are hoping it didn't do any major damage to the roof and are super glad it didn't break any of our windows on that side. We are also grateful that we weren't actually in the house when it happened. We had a showing scheduled from 6:30 to 7:30, so we were at Justin's parents' house when the storm blew through.

Upper/Lower case matching center

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!---Summer '09 Week 1

This week's book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. A great introducation to the alphabet, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom takes kids on a wonderful letter adventure with silly rhymes and a coconut tree!

Here's a link to Totally Tots Activities: ABC Introduction

Reading:

I made a Chicka Chicka Tot Book for each of the kids. My goal is to have the kids find one picture each week of something beginning with the letter of the week to glue on the Tot Book; this way we can use the book for phonics practice in the future.

All of this is review for Kayleigh, so I am going to challange her to start spelling out words with the letters in her Tot Book. We will also practice writing her name.

Math:

Shape Coconut Trees--using a rectangle and trapezoid for the trunk, diamonds for the leaves, and circles for the coconuts. Decorate with letter stickers for more alphabet reinforcement.

William will be working on numeral recognition and counting for number 1-5. I am going to have him color a coconut tree and use buttons as coconuts for his counting practice.

Kayleigh will be working on addition using a coconut tree mat and buttons.

Memory Verse: EXODUS 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother."

Fun Pre-School Stuff!

If you have toddlers, you need to check out this website: Totally Tots! I wish I could come up with this stuff on my own, but I can't and I am so glad someone else can!

We are going to use their ABC, Memory Verse, and Book Ideas over the summer, along with The Frances Study Guide. Kayleigh fell in love with the Frances books by Russell Hoban right around her third brithday. She is Frances, made up songs and all!

My goal is to do one letter and book a week and a memory verse every two weeks. We have been negligent in the memory verse department since I switched to boxed curriculum. I'm not going actually plan out anything, since our time for school will be hit or miss while the move (or moves) is going on.

I don't think we will be continuing with the box stuff; too many activities assumed a large class and there really wasn't much learning going on, at least that was my opinion. The crafts were fun, so was the music, but I can figure those out on my own and save $40 a month.

WE'RE MOVING!!!!!

Yes, that's right. Despite the "buyers" market, we have a contract on our house and got more than anyone thought we could! Whoopi!

One problem....we don't know where we are moving to! Yes, I know, we have a contract on a brand new home in Frisco, which would be quite lovely, except that it's in Frisco. Once we got the contract on our current house, we decided to check out some homes in Highland Village just to be sure Frisco is what we wanted, and now Frisco is more the back-up plan.

Here's a little background.....

2003--We decide it's time to buy a home. We find a development out in Aubrey and start making some plans to buy there. We end up deciding to buy in Lewisville.

2006---We find a development in McKinney. Our first house goes on the market and sells in a month. We decide with two kiddos it would be nice to live close to family and we buy our current house.

Fast forward to a month ago. We decide now is a good time to move up in house/neighborhood with interest rates being so low. Find development out in Frisco and this time we actually enter a contract and pick out all the fun stuff (although for our budget, there really wasn't much picking).

So the trend seems to be: we want to buy a new home, but can't afford that here, so we look elsewhere. We then decide that new isn't as important as proximity to our families and our church home....we really don't want to leave our church right now, there's too much at stake.

We have a couple possiblities out in Highland Shores and few more in other parts of Highland Village. Coincidentally (and I really don't believe in coincidences), the house two doors down from Justin's parents is back on the market. It was for sale back in 2006, but priced a little out of our budget.....everytime we drive by one of us says, "Gee, wouldn't it be cool if that house came back on the market" and now it is.....eerie.

So here we are in limbo land, a place neither one of us enjoys! The inspection for our current house is tomorrow and hopefully nothing huge will come up and break the deal. Then I have four, yes, four weeks to pack up this house. Should be fun!

Happenings! (a.k.a. why there is a serious lack of blogging)

• Hopefully selling our house in the next month or so! We are super procrastinators and don't do any decor or landscaping until we want to sell :); it has been a busy four weeks or so. We found a new neighborhood in Frisco we really like and have a contract to build. It's exciting! Still, if our current house doesn't sell for what we want, we are totally fine with staying put. We really don't care either way.....it is a good opportunity for us to get closer to Justin's work and buy new, which is why we decided to go for it.
• End of the school semester is next week. Enough said.
• Trying out some of those boxed preschool curriculums. So far I have sampled curriculum from The Learning Box Preschool and Adventures in Learning. The Learning Box is heavy on crafts-- I'm not a big craft person, so it was a little annoying for me, but the kids loved it. Adventures in Learning is a little less craft intensive---usually one craft for the day, whereas The Learning Box would have two, sometimes three. The one big perk in my book is that the company gives you all the craft supplies and packages them by the day. Huge time-saver! And yes, I am willing to pay a little extra if it saves me the time of shopping for all those things! If I had to choose right now, I would stick with Adventures in Learning; it is less time-intensive and I would have the option of adding more to it if needed, i.e. a phonics curriculum and activity centers.

And we have a decision.....

With next fall creeping closer and closer, the schooling decision has been keeping me up at night. What is best for our kids? What is best for our family? Is there really a right and wrong answer? A couple weeks ago, after much introspection, observation and evaluation, I came to the conclusion that full-time homeschooling is just not an option for us. It would not be what is best for our children, nor what is best for our family for many reasons; the main one being the dynamic my relationship with Kayleigh. I'm not ashamed to admit we just need some space.

After I reached that conclusion, I began researching other options, two specifically: Coram Deo Academy and Liberty Christian School. I have a dear friend who works at Liberty and thought I could get a job there quite easily, allowing the kiddos to go there and me to make some money. While I liked that option, I really preferred Coram Deo, since it offered the chance for Kayleigh to "go" to school and to also homeschool part-time. To pay for Coram Deo, I would need to continue with childcare; two childcare kiddos would pay for both my kiddos' tuition and supplies, so if we wanted/needed extra money, I would need to keep more. In essence, either option would require me to work 40-50 hours a week, which is something we do not desire for me to have to do--want to do, ok, but not have to do.

So, we talked about it all a couple nights ago...at 10:30 pm, which must be the magic time for good conversations! We came to the opinion that while a private school education might be different than public school, it is not necessarily better, especially in this area where we have some pretty darn good public schools. Therefore, at least for us, the cost of private school, both monetary and family (i.e. me having to work full-time), is just not worth the different educational experience. We also believe that having involved, committed, Christ-following parents can compensate for the negative aspects of public school.

That being said.....Kayleigh will be starting Kindergarten at public school in the fall! We do plan to "afterschool" in history, science, and Latin to start out, and she'll go to the kid's program at church for Bible. I really want to find an American Sigh Language class for kids her age; she talks with her hand all the time and even makes up signs, so I'm thinking this could be an interest of hers.

I'm going to continue doing childcare until William is in school, and after that we are planning on me working part-time. This way I can have the flexibility to be a room mom, go on field trips, etc., and be the keeper of our home.

Of course, this is not a forever decision as we will be re-evaluating periodically, perhaps transferring to private school later on, but for now I feel at peace about the decision and am sleeping much better!