Blog Hop #5 - What's Your Style

A huge thanks to Our Worldwide Classroom for hosting this blog hop!

So what's my style, my approach, my thinking behind how I homeschool.  Well, this is my third year of homeschooling Little Cheese.  It has been such a learning experience for me.  At the beginning of this current school year, I really struggled with whether or not to continue to homeschool or to go ahead and put her in public school (hubby is a teacher in an excellent school system and the pluses and advantages to school really pulled at me this year.)

So, we started out this year with an official school desk (salvaged from a school), a white board, and tons of workbooks.  My goal:  to get Little Cheese ready to attend public school for third grade.  She was going to be able to sit at her desk, look at the white board, copy work, do work, and basically have no fun while doing it.

It didn't work for long.  I hated it.  She hated it.  It took us to a relationship that God simply did not plan on us having.  From the moment the word school came from my mouth...the struggle began.  So, some time in late December,  I was convinced that the best course of action was to enroll her in public school prior to Christmas break.   

God is so good!    He changed my heart!  You can read more about my post on that if you are interested.  First of all, the two days prior to Christmas break in which I wanted to enroll my Little Cheese, it snowed.  Feet.  God literally closed the doors of the school.  Then the first of January, Little Cheese had her tonsils out.  No school for a while for her recovery.  Then I decided to simply teach my Little One. 

I have assembled the best possible curriculum using various publishers.  I have sought out ideas and curriculum thoughts from highly admired homeschoolers.  I have listened to my friends share their struggles and successes and tried to fit them into how I homeschool.  I have found so many wonderful ideas and resources from the incredible amount of wonderful homeschool bloggers!

I am not sure what style of homeschooling we are...only that we are not unschoolers.  I guess the best classification is:  I AM A HOMESCHOOLER.  This is what I am.  A mom and a teacher.

My Family- Blog Hop Week 2

I would first like to thank Our Worldwide Classroom for coming up with the wonderful idea to host this blog hop.  For more details, click here...

This weeks theme is "My Family" so here is a little about us.

I met my husband when I was 17 and a senior in public high school.  I had gone to visit a friend of mine who was a freshman in college and she introduced me to the cutest guy that I had ever met (and also a senior in college which, of course, made him extremely awesome).  My friend and I along with my new found crush and his roomate hung out together for several hours.  My crush grew with each moment.

Two days later, my friend from college called me.  She said that my crush was sitting beside her and he wanted her to ask me to go "steady, you know, date only him and he would date only me".  I said yes!  We were married two years later!

My husband is....a high school Earth Science teacher.  This is his 12th year teaching and absolutely loves his job.  His undergrad is in Geology and actually worked in this profession prior to going back and getting his Masters to teach.  Several years later he received his National Board Certification.  But he is so much more than a teacher.

He is a wonderful Daddy, a wonderul example of a Christian husband, a self taught 18th century cabinetmaker, a self taught mechanic, a webmaster, a wonderful son to his parents, a RC airplane and car fanatic, and besides too many other things to go on about, my best friend.

In 2002 we had our first child, Little Cheese.  We were in way over our heads.  We loved her, played with her, taught her, read the same books a thousand times, painted, painted, colored.....
She is my firstborn.  She is warm, thoughtful, giving, a perfectionist, an amazing artist, and an amazing big sister....

In 2005 we had Manny.  My husband and I were so taken with our daughter and how "wonderful" she was that we desperately wanted another girl.  We knew what to do with a girl.  The day that I went for the ultrasound, my husband could not be with me.  So, I asked the technician to keep the sex of the baby a secret and to put that picture in an envelope.  Then I closed my eyes as she took the picture and I heard 4 letters on the keyboard being punched.  A girl!  Another girl!  I was giddy as I drove to my husband's work so that we could look at the picture together.  I pulled it out of the envelope and it say BOY!  Those were the four key punches.  B-O-Y-!

Manny is a complete boy, my go all the timer, spinner,  jumper, snuggler, play-doh-playing, stick carrying, sweet, sweet, sweet little Man.  He doesn't like to sit still, doesn't like to color, doesn't like to sit quietly and listen to stories, and loves to sing loudly!  He is a 360 opposite of my daughter.   And he is learning to be a great big brother....

In 2008 our second daughter, Goosie was born.  She is the love bug of our lives.  From the moment she was born, she has wanted to be held close.  She loves to dance and sing and play everything that her big brother and sister are playing.

Our family is complete.  It is amazing how knowing that is powerful.  We have the family that God has planned on us to have and it is completely wonderful.