New Stage in Life

     Coming up in September the youngest two kids are going to start doing duel enrollment with our local community collage. So with that, We have decided as a family that I will go back to teaching full time, I am an Early Childhood Educator.  With my new job I have the opportunity to continue my education and get my Bachelors Degree in Early Child Education. I am so excited to start this new adventure. My two youngest will still be doing a couple of subjects at home, but most will be at the community collage.  

    So somethings I am looking forward to as I go back into the classroom.  I love teaching, I love seeing kids grasp concepts, and I love decorating and planning my classroom.  I will have a co-teacher, so that is good.  I am looking forward to getting to know her and the students.  I have been out of a perfectional classroom for 14 years.  To say the least I am a little nervous to start back teaching full time, but I am also excited.  I am excited with the opportunity to get my bachelors degree. 

    I am going to be learning a new work, school, life balance.  I am so thankful that I know a lot of crockpot and instant pot recipes.  I will be working on meal prep recipes and stocking the freezer before going back to work and starting school.  I will also be working on meal prep for lunches.  With the kids going to in person classes a couple days a week, my husband works full time, plus a part time job, and with me starting to work a full time job, it will be nice to have home made lunches on the go.  I will be working on recipe and blog post for all of that, including what lunch boxes and containers we will be using.  As I get ready to go back I will be posting a what is in my teacher bag, things I have in my classroom, and so much more about going back to the workforce after 14 years. I can't wait to take you along on this new journey, and still give you content like I have been. New recipes, what God is teaching me, homeschool life, cleaning and organizing, meal prep ideas and more. 

Until Next Time,

Pitters

My New Home Office

After living in our new home for 5 months I am finally getting around to setting my office up more to my liking.  When we first moved into our home I was all set to run my Paparazzi jewlery bussiness out of it.  But after a long convertation with my husband and seeking God in prayer I made the choice to not continue.  So the office sat in dissaray, mostly a dumping ground for things we did not have a place for.  I thought is would be a fun craft room, but that to was always a mess. Marshall thought it would be a good dressing room, becuase it is in our bedroom with it's own door.  But I just did not like that idea.  As the kids have gotten older we have talked a couple of times about me finding a job I could do from home.  So now I am ready to take that step and I am looking for a job I can do from home that has a consistant pay and is legit.  Many of at home office jobs require a work space that can accomidate two computer monitors.  So I bought two desks that works better for my office set up, insted of one large desk, to house a computer set up like that.  I am also still using my smaller desk in my office for if the kids need some help with homeschool durring the day.  They will have a work space. Or I might turn it into a vanity area.  I also have three cuby storage shelves.  Two of them are 3 by 3 cubies and the other one is a 3 by 1 cuby set up.  My hope is that with the new office set up I will also be more consistant in writing my blogs, making videos for my YouTube page, and posting on the Facebook and Instagram pages for this blog.  

I am working on stoage solutions fror my office, but very budget friendly.  I will be sharing what I am using for storage in my office and pictures of my set up.  This will be in a follow up blog.  I will be sharing my before pictures. Well a much let messy, but still messy before pictures.  

So I have some organizing to to do.  I still have one desk that Marshall will put together this week.  My daughter is working on the gardening merit badge for scouts so that is why I currently have potted plants in my office.  She has started herb seeds and some vegetable seeds.  Once it is warm enough they will go our on our balcony.  But that is a whole other blogg post. As you can see I am a baby Yoda fan.  But back to the topic at hand.

So what do i like about my office space? First off I love the fact I have two nice size windows.  I love it is right in our bedroom so I can have a quite space to work.  Also if my kiddos are sick I am not far from them if they need me.  I am glad that even as teens they still need me. I am excited to finish my office and show you all the things that i am using for storage solutions on a budget. 

Until Next Time,

Pitters

A New Start

 This past year and a half has been crazy for our family.  With the loss of my mom in December 2019, Covid turing our world upside down, my oldest getting married durring the pandamic,  my aunt passing in March 2021, and moving in August.  Our family has tried our best to stay strong for eachother.  I feel that these test, trials, victories, and losses have made us stronger.  We have found a new appreciation of the time we have together.  

As we settle into our new home, I am greatful for so many things.  Yes we have experinced so much loss, but we are also experiencing so many blessings.  As a homeschool/Stay at home mom I am learning to reprioritize things in my life.  I feel like I have lost myself a little.  But I am getting back to who I want to be.  I am wanting to start or restart a few things over the next couple of months.  I am looking forward to taking you all along on this journey.

Until Next Time,

Pitters

The Way We Homschool

     We are staring back to school for the second semester of the year on Monday January 8, 2018.  Let me start off by saying we really don't do school all day.  This is because the kids work at their own pace and many times are done with school by lunch time.  This is one advantage to homeschooling, the kids get done with school and are then able to take time at explore things they are interested in.  But that is for another blog, this one is about how we homeschool.

We typically start school at 9 am.  The kids are allowed to study each subject in the order they wish.  My two high schoolers are 100% on their own.  They are allowed to ask me for help if needed, but we use switched on schoolhouse for high school.  This is a computer based program and I love it because it does most of my grading for me.  My seventh grader is mostly on his own, he still needs help with English when it comes to writing papers.  We usually talk about what he is reading in science and history.  My 4th grader I still teacher her all her subjects, of course.  After their school work is done the kids get one hour for playing a computer game or video game.  I give them this time right after they are done so they can unwind some.  Then we try and do one hour of free reading time or they can also read and journal from the Bible.  They do a quiet time every morning, but sometimes they like to read more or reread what they read in the morning.  Most afternoons are spent doing chores and the kids playing board games, Legos, or doing something of interest to them.  Many afternoons are spent with the kids outside playing. 

     My kids love field trip days.  Okay, so what kids don't like field trip days?  Were we live is a great place to homeschool if you are looking for field trips.  We have history museums, art museums, a great zoo, a lot of historical landmarks,  and so much more.  We are the home of the collage world series, and even though that is not officially during school time.  It is still a fun field trip.  

      I main thing that we love about homeschooling is the fact that we get to homeschool the way we want too.  Our homeschool does not have to look like anyone else. Truth be told it should not, we are not all the same, every families' need are different. 

Until Next Time,
Pitters

Unit Studies: Using American Girl History Dolls

     This year for fourth grade we are doing unit studies with our daughter.  We are starting with Kaya, she is the Native American history girl.  My daughter and I are enjoying reading the books and doing a few crafts. Of this unit we are also going to be using the other resources from National Geographic, Usborne Books, and many others.  This years history unit studies all came about because of my daughters love for American Girl Dolls.  She loves reading the books about the different dolls.  How many of you also have daughters that love 18in dolls?

     I like how we have the freedom to use materials and books that our kids love to help them learn different subjects.


List of books we are using this year for 4th grade history.

* all the historic doll books from American Girl
* The Frist Americans (Usborne Books & More)
* Timelines of World History (Usborne Books & More)
* Various books from the Library about the time period we are studying.

     We also use Pinterest to find crafts and recipes.

How We Use Usborne Books & More in our Homeschool

     Let me start off saying that we have not always used books From Usborne and Kane Miller in our homeschool classroom.  About two years ago I as reintroduced to Usborne Books & More.  About a year after that I joined my friend in the Usborne Books & More business.  So when I share about Usborne Books & More please know that I might share my website from time to time.  So if I share that link and you order please note you are helping me in my small business.

     Currently my daughter is reading books from our Ella Diaries a series.  This book series has helped my daughter learn to love reading.  If your daughter like books such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, then your daughter just might like Ella Diaries.

Disclamer: This is the link to my Usborne Books & More Website. I am an independent consultant with Usborne Books & More.  If you use this link to buy any books I will recessive compensation.

https://p5875.myubam.com/search?q=Ella+Diaries

     My 12 year old is reading books from our Extreme Adventures series.  So far he has read three of the books.  Scorpion Sting, Bear Attack, and Spider Bite.  He loves the books because the main characters are about his age.

Disclamer: This is the link to my Usborne Books & More Website. I am an independent consultant with Usborne Books & More.  If you use this link to buy any books I will recessive compensation.

https://p5875.myubam.com/search?q=Extreme+Adventures

     I am thinking about doing a book or book series highlight of Usborne Books & More a couple times a month.  Let me know if you all would like me to do this.

Homeschool Does Not Always Have to be at Home

     I don't know how many times my kids or myself have been asked do you like just sitting at home all day, everyday?  Really people, I could ask your child the same thing, about sitting in a classroom all day.  Ok, first off yes we mostly do school in our home, but we also have the freedom to take our learning and even our book work on the road.  We also don't do all of our work at desks or tables. 
   
     For example last week my 12 year old (7th grader) was able to go with our aunt to our church's car care.  He was able to help one of the pastors change the breaks on her van.  He was able to work along side a man that was teaching him a very valuable life skill.  He has been able to help with our car care ministry before.  Most of the time it is getting tools and putting things away, but some times he get hands on lesson.  Any work he does is double checked by the adult in charge that day.  It has sparked an interest for him, he has been talking about looking into going to school for auto maniacs.  in the coming months and as he gets older he hope to help more with that ministry.

     In the past we have taken our books to a park just to get some fresh air and when school work was done they could run and play.  We try to go on a variety of field trips with our kids.  Any were from the zoo to art museums.  All learning does not have to be book learning.  Many times I take the kids with me to grocery shop, this helps teach them about budget, menus, nutrition labels, price comparison, and so much more.  A nature hike can be just as informative, if not more, as reading a book about nature.

     So please if you are thinking about homeschooling or if you are new to it, please don't think you have to be stuck in the house all day, everyday.  I also did not talk about co-op classes or extra curricular actives you can do with your homeschoolers.  We don't personal do co-ops, but many of our friends do.  Our boys are in Boy Scouts and our daughter is in American Heritage Girls.  Our church also has a homeschool group that gets together a couple times a year for holiday parties, field trips, and track and field day. There are so many ways to homeschool and there is not really a wrong way.  As long as your children are learning and exploring you are doing great.

     If you homeschool already can you tell us some ways to break routine and get your kiddos out of the house during the school year.  If you don't homeschool but are thinking about it please ask questions and I will try and answer them.

Senior Year!

     As we are getting ready to graduate our first homeschool senior this spring, I am realizing how much there is to it.  I knew there would be getting transcripts ready, making plans for what collage he want to attend, and getting ready for graduation.  I never thought about how finding scholarships and some of the other deadlines and things that we would have to look into.  How at times I feel over whelmed.  I am so thankful for the families we know that have walked these steps before us and are more than happy to help if they can.  As we go during this senior year I will write about what we have learned, in hopes that it can help someone.

     This first right of passage of our senior that we took care of was his senior pictures.  I had though about doing them myself, but a good friend of ours ask if she could do them as a gift, plus she wanted to get practice with a new lens she had gotten, lol. I will share with you all some of his pictures.

     The next thing that we had not fully thought through was the fact he has to take the ACT test.  I knew in the back of my mind he needed to, but until this fall it slipped my mind.  So a slight homeschool "guidance councilor" fail.  It will work out and he will be taking the test in December.  I am trying my hardest to work on his transcript, but I have also not done very well with that.  I am lucky we use a computer based program for high school now. But his first two years we did not so I am going back over some things to find final grades.  Fail number two, on my part.  I told him the other day that I feel bad because he is the child that we are learning all this on and I was sorry for not being more on top of things.  In my opinion it is ok to and we need to apologize to our kids. I am looking forward to sharing more of our senior year journey with you all.

Homeaschooling Year 10: End of the First Month

     Our 2017/18 School year has started out to be a productive one. We are in full swing of our school year schedule.  All of our actives have started or will start next week. This year our boys are in scouts again and our daughter is in American Heritage Girls.  Our church is starting our youth group up again.  All of our other church groups have also started back for the school year.  It feels good to get back in our routine.  Don't get me wrong I love summer break, but I miss some of our weekly actives during that time.

     We started off history learning about ancient Egypt.  We read many books about the pyramids and how mummies were made.  We learned about daily life in Egypt at that time. We will be finishing our unit with make old Barbie dolls into Mummies. The kids were not as interested in the unit as they had originally thought they would be.  That is ok, not every subject is appealing as you start off thinking it would be.

     We are reviewing in Math and will start with new information with in a week. In English we are working with the younger two on writing different types of papers.  K is learning how to write a personal narrative, she is doing very good for her first one.  P is also working on a personal narrative, he is not excited about English and rather do Math all day.  He is doing very well and learning how to fine tune his writing.

     Our two high school kids are doing amazing at keeping up with there work.  We use Switched on Schoolhouse for High School.  They are for the most part independent in their studies.  J is also working on studying for the ACT. He is working on getting everything together for applying for collage.   A is loving his freshman year in high school.  He is enjoying watching the weather channel online to see the coverage of Hurricane Harvey.  His likes weather study, that has been one of his favorite merit badges he has earned, in scouts.

     Also during our first month of school we learned about the solar system and the solar eclipse.  We were able to see the solar eclipse (98% of totality).  I am glad we were able to experience it as a family.   The kids loved seeing the moon moving to block out the sun.  Waiting for the Eclipse and during 98%.

So many adventures await us this year.  I am looking forward to writing about them.  See you all soon.

Our 10th Year Homeschooling!!!

     As the 2017-2018 school year starts (August 1).  I think back over the last nine school years, how I was nervous to start teaching our children at home.   That first school year I taught third grade, Kindergarten, and preschool.  We also had a newborn.  We did not know what our family was heading towards in some ways.  All we knew is that we were going to take homeschooling one year at a time. 

     The first year is a blur for the most part.  Some of the year I spent trying to replicate a public school classroom. But having a very set schedule.  Because as someone that attended public school that is what I thought that was what was expected of us.  I then sought out council from other homeschooling moms and found out that my homeschool did not have to "match" a public school classroom. Wow, I thought how much stress I was feeling about that was not even necessary.  If the kids and I got done with our lessons that it was ok for them to just play, read or be read too.  It was ok for them to paint, draw, or play outside.  I did not have to keep them cooped up in the house on nice days.  We could have impromptu "field trips", even of it was to the store down the street.   I remember one day we took our school work to the park by our house and took lunch with us.  I did not have to fear having someone call in on me because my kids "were not in school".  The first year we built a cover wagon out of sheets and my boys bunk beds.  We talked about how westward expansion happened, the Oregon trail and so much more with that unit.

     Over the years we have changed up some of our curriculum and we have done unit studies.  We have gone on countless field trips to places like our state capital building, museums, the zoo, and so many more.  This year is biter sweet for me. We have a senior in high school, a freshman, 7th and 4th graders. How have things changed for our school?  Well not much we still go on field trips, but the conversations about the field trips are much more in-depth with my kids.  Instead of just mommy look a lion, we talk about classification of lions or what ever animal we are in front of.  We might look for one particular style or artist in the art museum and talk about other works from that time or artist. Instead of can we find all the paintings that have the colors blue, read and yellow in them. If we are at the history museum we take a closer look at a particular time or culture.  Instead of when they were little hearing things like mommy look they have a train can I go see inside it. Ok, I will admit I still hear when we go to the Durham Western Heritage Museum, " Mom can we go on the train?"  When we go to the library the stacks of book don't get shorter in fact they seem taller, but the count of books has gone down for most of my kids.  It is just that the books they are reading are now four or more times the page count they used to be. 

     I will say that it has not all been easy, but it has all been worth it.  We have had times were everyone has cried about not understanding something new.  We have had times of celebrations, because someone learned something new.  So as we start our tenth year homeschooling I know that we will have many more ups and downs, many more field trips, and many more conversations.  I would say that the most important thing I have learned on our Homeschool Journey so far is that time goes by way to fast and I am glad that I can spend the time I do with my kids and help them learn the things they need for life and so much more.

Homeschool and Gardening

     With spring comes our yearly planning of our garden.  I use our garden as an opportunity to teach my kids science, home economics, and so much more.  Gardens help with keeping our food budget in check as we harvest.  This year we have moved our herb garden inside.  We are lucky enough to have a greenhouse window in our kitchen.  It is a great spot for all the herbs I love cooking with.  We had our herb garden outside last year and the chives and thyme came back. So we transplanted some of the plants into their new homes. we also planted rosemary, lavender and basil.  We worked on the herb garden today as part of school.
    
     Also this year we are planting tomatoes one cherry tomato and one or two roma tomato. We are planting corn, carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers, and a few other things. I also am getting dill for our herb garden.

     I love canning so I like using the roma tomatoes in my homemade sauce.  I also use many of the fresh herbs and bell peppers in my sauce.  I will share my recipe and a blog about canning spaghetti sauce at harvest time.

This is our herb garden!!!

Until Next Time

Making Memories and Learing Lessons!!

     It is Friday night and I am so happy that it is.  This weekend is very busy for my guys.  My husband and our boys are going to a competition for our area Boy Scout Council.  It is The Klondike Derby Camp.  This happens every year in January, troop from our area work together to complete tasks given to them.  The troops work for about a month or so before the camp to build a sleds, that is used to carry equipment and sometimes even a person.  They are challenged on basic scouting skills.  I know my boys always have wild stories for me when they return home every year.

     So what does mom and little sis do when the guys are away?  Well this weekend we will be doing some crafts, playing with her dolls, and most likely painting our nails.  We will also work on some reading and may even go to the library.  We also go grocery shopping on most weekends.  Mostly we have a fun girls day. 

     I was encouraged today with the moms time meeting at our church.  We are reading through a book called "Mom Enough: The Fearless Mothers Heart and Hope" by Tony and Karalee Reinke.  It is a collection of Blogs that a group of moms wrote.  We read chapters 21 and 22 for this months meeting.  Chapter 21 talked about not worrying about anything.  One of the verses they used was Philippians 4:6- "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God".  It helped remind me that I need to be praying more in time when I am feeling overwhelmed.  Chapter 22 was about how we view our children.  Our children are a gift from God!!!  It talked about how are children are not a to-do-list, but they are to be treasured.  The time with our children is such a small about of time in their lives were we have a huge impact on their lives.  Sitting and talking with the other moms in our church and hearing that they have the same struggles of keeping these thing in mind was refreshing. 

     My quiet times this week, that is when I read my Bible and spend time praying, have had a every clear message.  That message you may ask..... I don't need to stressed and worry all the time.  I think that as moms this can come naturally, but it is not good for anyone to stress or worry.  So how can I stress less, worry less? I am going to look up Bible verses about the subjects and write them down and place them in areas that I can see them during the day.  My hope is that reading them and then praying about what is stressing me will help me to let go of that worry. 

     Well I should go finish up a few things before bed time.  Let me know if you would like for me to share the verses that I find with you.  I might make a printable for you all if that is something you would like.  Let me know in the comments! 

We are a homeschool family!!!!!!

     It was a cold Monday morning.  We are back to the normal homeschool schedule today, even with it being Martin Luther King Jr. day.  We chose a long time ago that we would still do homeschool on holidays like MLK day and Presidents Day.  When I was in school we never got these day off. , we were in school in these holidays to learn about why we honor these men.  So that is just what we do, we learn about these men that had and continue to have an impact on our country.

     Life as a homeschool family is not all that different than families that send their children off to public or privet school. Yet, at the same time it is completely different.  Let me explain what I mean. 

     How is homeschooling the same?  Like other families we care about our children's education.  Like other families we do what we feel is best for our kids education.  Our children learn math, science, history, language arts, and many other subjects. We have expectations for our children with school work, as well as other things. Our children do extra curricular actives.  Homeschool kids make friends and are very well rounded.

     So now you ask ok so how are homeschooling different?  Well we do school really anywhere we choose. What I mean by that is some homeschool families have a dedicated room in their home, others meet around the dinning room table, and still others choose a wide variety of places to hold lessons.  In our home we have a dedicated room, it was our living room. We have a table for the kids to do their work, bookshelves and some over sized chairs to have the kids hand out a read.  There are days like today that we also all sit around our dinning room table.  Our dinning room is right off of the classroom area so it has easy access to every thing we need.  Still there are other days that the local zoo, museum, park, store, or restaurant is our classroom.  We are free to take more "field trips".  Part of the freedom to homeschool is that it looks differently for every family. It will be hard to find an exact match.  Even if families are using the same curriculum it will look different.

     This school year I am teaching 4 kids, all in different grades.  I have a high school student that is a junior.  He does his work on the computer with a program called Switched on Schoolhouse.  His studies are basically independent. I have an 8th grader that does most of his school work on his own.  He still needs reminding about getting things completed. This  a new thing for him with school, up until this fall he did not need much reminding.  I also have a 6th grader, he is very good at math.  We work with struggles in English. Last but not least my 3rd grader.  She loves doing her math, but is not so keen on reading.  We are working very hard on her reading skills.  So as you can see yes homeschool kids also have struggles with school work.

     The point is that our family has chosen homeschool as the right option for our family.  It may not be for everyone, and that is ok.  I am just hoping that you can get a felling for what one homeschool family does in life.