Happy Friday

I forgot just how busy homeschooling keeps me! Busy in a good way though because I am definitely less stressed about teaching my children everything that there is to know in the entire world. Boy, that's a lot of pressure!

Yesterday, I spent almost all of my free time, and I use the term free time loosely, working on getting everything organized for the remainder of the year. I succeeded in getting Latin completed and most of Science, I even got in a library run for some books on astronauts and the solar system. We are picking up Apologia Science right where we left off in September which is, *gulp* chapter one. It's alright, I am happy that the kids remember everything that I taught them way back in September so I will not twitch about the fact that there are 13 more chapters to cover, each with a minimum of 8 different subjects within that chapter. Did I mention that there are experiments, too? Now you're twitching right?

Oddly enough, I am not worried about Latin at all. The boys really enjoy Latin and it has been a surprising subject for me in that I am enjoying it, too. Who knew?

John had been using Singapore math here at home with me and although it was working for teaching the concepts, it wasn't working because he needed more drill on the subject matter at hand. Sending him to school is a decision that I do not regret because it helped me to see that he needed more in the area of math. He is very smart and grasps concepts quickly, but math facts give him a little trouble. We have been spending quite a bit of time drilling addition, subtraction and multiplication facts along with his regular math lessons.

I made the executive decision the other day to switch him to Saxon math, what he was using in school, for the drill and reinforcement of concepts. When I told John, I kind of expected him to react negatively but he was excited about going back to it. Thus began the search for the teachers manual.

I found the worksheets at a very reasonable price at Christian Book online. Why do teachers manual's require a king's ransom? Seriously, I'm not rich and I don't mind paying when I am going to get use from the book but, c'mon! (If you read my Longaberger post, please disregard the last sentence and my poverty blues whine.)

I was frustrated because Kevin asked me to stop spending money and I was afraid that my MAC card would disintegrate from overuse. What to do? I e-mailed the e-loop that I belong to and sent out an S.O.S. for the Saxon teachers manual. I also went to the Well Trained Mind sale and swap board hoping that someone would have the book for a reasonable rate.

Not even thirty minutes later, I receive an e-mail from a girl on my e-loop that I am friendly with, she has the teacher's manual! Woo-hoo! Her e-mail also mentioned that I could have the book, FREE! FREE? FREE? Oh, no, this will never do! I replied that I would be happy to pay for the book. She replied back, Elaine, I just want you to have it, payment is not necessary. I could have cried, I was so touched.

I told Kevin and he was moved, but not as moved as I was. I told him that I was taking this as a sign that I was heading in the right direction with math for John. God has been so faithful to me during this whole school saga. My life is so much more pleasant and peaceful when I do things God's way. Why do I have to keep learning that lesson over and over again?

All in all, things are going well. Jeremy is a little firecracker! I am amazed at the rate of speed in which he picks up concepts and remembers facts. He amazes me!

Last night I let the boys watch Survivor with me. They were quite intrigued by the human skull props decorating the tribal council area, Jeremy in particular. We began discussing the island and why they had those things there. I made the mistake of mentioning "cannibalism." This kind of freaked Jeremy out, especially when I defined the word. I had to spend the next 10 minutes explaining why we don't have to worry about people eating us here in New Jersey. I told him that our biggest fear, the only thing we have to worry about in New Jersey is the Tax Monster, who eats all of our income.

"Oh," was all he said. At least he's not afraid of cannibals anymore.

Look to the finish!