Last night was our annual end of school program/Kindergarten graduation.  None of the pictures turned out from the auditorium because the lights were all off over head.  The lighting was bad for pictures.  My favorite parts of the program were the songs-God Bless America, Holy Bible Book Divine, both sung Very Loudly!  I was impressed.

Jacob’s long long memorization page from his History book brought tears to my eyes.  He stood there straight and tall, with a 3-cornered hat on, and a stick in his hand.  He recited PERFECTLY, no hesitations and even smiled naturally during it.  Wow.  I was impressed with that, too. (all of this was a carefully guarded secret, the children didn’t give us any hints of what we would see)

Ethan surprised me with the amount of lines he had to memorize.  You could tell these children had practiced hard because they went through everything in good timing, with no hesitations.

It was all cute and I had a huge grin on my face through most of it.

Here are some pictures we took after the program:

Well, this one is before the program.  One of ebabe’s former students played through a few piano numbers with no problem.  She was even talented enough to look around at us to make sure we were paying attention to her big moment!  Well done!

Here are our 2 first graders.  Always together, holding hands and giggling.  They are the small and innocent friends that you would see on Hallmark cards.

Uh oh.  Was that pineapple punch that we served?  And here is one of our beautiful teachers serving it up so carefully. . . . . .

Our Ethan

My Hubby holding C, Abbie (our niece), me, Grace, David.  See Abbie looking at Grace?  She’s always watching and copying her.  It’s very cute, they are more like sisters than cousins.

Don’t I look happy?  Here I am holding my  “roses and cream” niece.

Friends. . . . .This picture makes me get all teary-eyed.

Another very very special friend. . . . . .my friend Jenny-poo

Oh, I just love being saluted!

This morning I am “under-water” tired.
Rich and I stayed up talking half the night, we were both wide awake. 
I need some encouragement from you homeschoolers.  I received scary input last night from a woman who used to teach in a Christian school and now homeschools using the DVD’s.  She was appalled that I had chosen to homeschool from the books, w/no DVD.  Basically her message was, “no way will you be able to do it, especially with these two”(gesturing toward my 3 yr. old and my baby). 

I feel perfect peace about our decision.  I just need some encouragement that I can do it! 

Well, I am going to go get my babies off to school.

Today is clean the kitchen and take care of laundry day.

We left on Saturday morning to join my parents in Ticonderoga, NY.  We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday on our mini-vacation.  We all had a lot of fun seeing Fort Ticonderoga.  My son Jacob is especially interested in the American Revolution, so this was a huge treat for him. 

Now that we are back home, I have lots to do.  But, I wanted to take a little time to post some pictures.

Yesterday:  Imagine listening to some fast, galloping song that goes on and on and never slows down.  That was the Soundtrack of my Afternoon!

Here is little David with his golf clubs. 

See that big, breakable vase?  I trained Caleb to leave it alone.  He never touches it!  Yes, I am being a little “tongue in cheek”, because now he’s just discovered something better!  My bookshelf!

Abbie, my niece, was with us all afternoon and spent the night. 

Ethan

Jacob and Ethan played baseball but it didn’t last long.  The bugs were horrible!

Caleb took a nice nap.

Abbie and Grace had fun on the swingset.  They both sat in one swing, twisted it and then let go for the ride!  Around and around they went!  Of course they ended up in the dirt.

This Morning:

Peace and Tranquility?  Not quite.  But I have a Starbucks coffee!

PS:  I went shopping today – went to the mall.  Then I came home for a little bit, went and got the kids from school, came home for snacks, then put them all to bed (except C.), and then I actually crashed on the couch for over an hour!  I watched a little tv. folded laundry, and played w/C.  Now E and D are up and I’m going to start dinner.  Hope everyone’s having a good day. 

I found these 2 papers.  One is Ethan’s News.  The other one is Jacob’s News.  I’m sure you can guess who wrote what:

News!

1. In Petco theirs a dog that cost twenty six dollars!
2. The bank exsploded on Thursday on Main street!
3. The robbers killed (apparently he lost his train of thought)

News!

1. The bank 20261 is in order, so far it has $3.76.
2.  The bank only takes pennies, nickles, quarters, and dollars.  We also include dimes.

I just love reading the kid’s school papers.  Here is one about heaven.  They were supposed to write some questions that they had about heaven.  I’ve been laughing about this one all day:

Will thar be anomls?
How will my nads be?

Okay, here is a story by Ethan.  It’s titled “The Boy who liked Jokes”:

Once upon a time there was a boy who liked jokes.  This is his favrit.  What did the hotdog say when he crossed the finish line.  I’m the weaner!  He laughed so much he fell in the river.  He floated intil he was full of hot air.  He got so fat he turned into a bubble.  And floated untill he popped and fell in a bush.  And his mouth was full of leaves.  And he sneased it into his mothers window and his mother said did you no just what you did you spowyowled are chochlet bush.  Than boy lafed and did it again intill try fly why the house was chocklet.

Grace wrote this one:

Abraham Lincoln is a grat President.  piple called him honest Abe.  He was vary brave.

Here is a patriotic essay by Ethan:

“The Red, White and Blue”
Our flag is a beautiful symbol of America’s freedom.  Our flag has 50 stars 13 stripes 7 red stripes and 6 white stripes.  It stands for America’s freedom.  My flag is special to me because it stands very tall.  I take off my cap and put it over my heart when I see my flag.  We must take very good care of our flag.  It reminds me of the people who fought for our country.   I love my flag very much.  I am proud to show my flag.

This is Rascal with his “sister” (I’m not sure yet)

Caleb and David enjoying the kittens, Patches, “no-name”, Tiger M. and Rascal.

If I had more time, I would edit out that string off Grace’s face.  You can ignore it, right?  Here is Grace with Rascal, my favorite kitten of the bunch.

The three older boys got haircuts this weekend.

It’s hard to resist my little man in jeans with no shirt on.  Now that he has a tooth, he loves to touch it w/his tongue and he’s always making this funny face now.

We’ve made the decision to home school Jacob next year.  He will be in 4th grade.  I will periodically write updates here on my blog about the process.

Today I have been searching the Internet for information.  I’ve basically come to the conclusion that I have to make a decision about whether to use dvd schooling (where the student watches school on tv) or go ahead and just teach him myself.

The other thing to remember is that I wouldn’t be doing this alone.  My husband is an excellent teacher, he’s more patient than I am, more calm.  He’s even said that Jacob could go with him to work once in a while to do his studies.  Whether this will prove practical is yet to be seen! 

There is a tremendous amount of information out there.  Now that we have internet, it has really opened up a wealth of information, tools, tips, and HELP! 

I’ve realized that I can change my mind set about LIFE and MOTHERHOOD in general as I go through this homeschooling process.  I am convicted about the many many teaching opportunities that I MISS during the day.  I could be teaching all of the children so much more than I am.  (and David is upstairs watching Mary Poppins as I type! *ouch*).  Obviously a balance has to be discovered and maintained or I will drive myself and everyone around me crazy.

I was looking at Rod and Staff Publishers curriculum today and I was impressed with what I saw.

I looked up CT law on home schooling.

I discovered the book A Well Trained Mind, by Susan Baur and I want to see if Barnes and Nobles has it so I can look through it.  Has anyone read it?

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of all these new ideas, but realistically I know it will be a lot of work.  Pray for me as I journey on!