CHECK IT OUT!

Andrea and Ron have a new collaborative effort:ATYPICAL HOMESCHOOL, a site chuck full of editorials, surveys and podcasts!

Starting fresh...

With fall, comes the anticipation of things to come. I still read some of my favorite "homeschool" blogs or, more accurately, blogs written by women who also provide their children with a home education. :) It is exciting to read about everyone's plans for the upcoming year and all of the fresh ideas! Even though my oldest two will be attending public school, I have a daughter who is now "preschool" age and every day looking for new things to learn and do. My youngest also reached a milestone, leaving babyhood behind, and with her being a toddler comes the promise of easier outings and another set of hands eagerly trying new things. I am looking forward to this "school year" and whatever it brings for our family.

~

Get in the school year frame of mind- go take the following quiz:

You are a Tigger Homeschooler. Tiggers jump into
homeschooling with both feet, as a grand
adventure. Everything is about learning, and
their days (and houses) show it.


What kind of Hundred Acre Wood Homeschooler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

~

It was created by a fellow homeschool blogger, Zelie, who has changed blog hosts to Homeschoolblogger.com (another free blog hosting service), mainly because you can post under indiviual catagories- great for the HTML-challenged (like myself).

Remembering...(the 2005 finale)

The day I decided we were finally jumping in! Wow, it's funny looking back, it seems like ages ago, not 5 months. I just finished printing this:

June 16, 2005
To Whom It May Concern,

Enclosed you will find the daily journal of Brielle Sposato's home education.
She logged just under 400 hours to date; well over the necessary 345. I wrote in some of the logged hours just to give you an idea of how I gauged them. I never logged more than 6 hours for one day, regardless of what more was done. I enclosed just a few samples of work she completed; you can find other samples online, in the archives, at http://gibrshma.blogspot.com/ and http://toowoo.blogspot.com/ .
Goals for the summer are as follows:
1. Brielle will continue to review and build skills in all of the areas covered in her second grade workbooks.
2. Brielle will read for at least 1 hour every day.
3. Brielle will take the Central Auditory Processing Test. (scheduled for next week)
4. We will formulate an education plan for the upcoming school year, and enroll Brielle in school for the third grade.

Thank you,



Gina (insert my last name here)


I just have to sign it, pop it in an envelope with my journal and mail it off. I have definitely enjoyed these last 5 months and I will say this in summary:

Homeschooling is a unique and wonderful experience; well worth jumping in to.

Enjoy your summer everyone!

My forwarding address:

I am officially signing off.

I'm going to leave this site up, for the archives and to wrap up the year (around the 20th). If Brielle continues with homeschooling next year, I will use this space as our journal.

I will continue our family story here. I hope you visit every now and again- children grow so fast.

You are all invited to join me HERE; A place I can hang up all of the hats I wear and just be me.

Testing 1,2,3

I'm testing out "journaling" on my photo blog- to see if a smooth transition to just 2 blogs is feasible. What do you think?

On a roll...

Still happy! (I was/am a little nervous that it might not have been an ongoing thing)

More great news: I got my evaluation on my mystery shopping report for the movie theater and I got a 10 out of 10- with comments on what a great job I did! Which means I'll be offered more of these types of jobs in the future!
The pleasure was all mine really, which inspired me to write this:

2 tickets to see
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: $ 16.50 (reimbused!)
A large Nachos and Diet Pepsi to share: $ 9.24 (reimbused!)
My pay: $ 8.00
Time spent laughing, talking, snacking and watching
a GREAT movie with my oldest daughter.... PRICELESS!

What a wonderful life.

The Return of Joy

It's backkkkk.......! After quite a few weeks of struggle and a lot of growing on John and I's part- JOY has made a return appearance in my life. First I had to admit, that yes- life was difficult at the moment, but my inability to handle it well was rooted in a deeper problem- another bout of post-partum depression. (sigh) I am a person who struggles with asking for help on a good day, never mind admitting when I'm having difficulty or even that I'm having difficulty. So instead, I push and I anger and I try and change the situation through extremely negative means. John was amazing. At first, he got angry right back. Then, through nothing short of a miracle, somehow he "got" that I couldn't cope. He was amazing. He asked questions, he listened and he helped. He gave me space to cry, without getting angry that I was sad when I "shouldn't" be. He made life more manageable for a while, picking up a lot more of the slack around the home. Giving me time to read and rest. Then he helped me find joy in our family again.
Saturday was a bright, warm day and we celebrated Brielle's upcoming birthday with a pool party for all of her friends. What fun to see all of the girls laughing and splashing! Sunday was more swimming, this time just our family, at the local State Park. Last night I had a mystery shop to do- at a movie theater a few towns over and John suggested I bring Gianna. When I balked, stating it was a school night, he gently prodded, asking- wasn't it more important to spend a little time reconnecting with her mother? That brought some tears for me; Gianna has sort have been lost in the shuffle these last few months- because she doesn't have any demanding "needs" right now. I agreed and her reaction, alone, was priceless. She was overjoyed. We spent a night talking, laughing, snacking and watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was just what the doctor ordered. I went to bed feeling like everything was finally going to be all right again.
This morning I woke up with a sense of calm and anticipation for the day ahead that I hadn't felt in just too long.