Changes Are A Comin'

I have elf pictures for those of you who want to know what Taxi HeyHey and Snowflake have been up to. I will do my best to get them posted this week, but they are a bit out of order due to Alyssa and Allison being placed on the "Naughty List" and the elves not showing up for a few days. No worries, all three girls are currently on the "Nice List" and all is well in our home.

In fact, things are better than well and I am so excited to share the news with all of you...

First of all, Alyssa and Allison will be entering public school for the second half of their kindergarten year. This is something that we have thought about, prayed about, talked about, argued about (with the girls) and eventually come to an agreement that we were all happy with. The girls have begged us to go to public school for awhile now. It's not so much that they think they will enjoy it more, it's simply because it is what they see their friends doing. Neighbor kids get on and off of the bus daily, kids talk about their teachers and friends at dance class and the girls notice that homeschooling isn't the 'norm'. This alone is not what changed our minds. It was however, what made me start to look into our options.

Private school is just out of the question because we, unfortunately, do NOT have $10,000+ to spend on education a year. Sorry, the military does not pay that well and with me not working, it's simply not an option. That brought me to public school. *sigh* I was not thrilled with the idea, but I didn't let that stop me. What I found was surprising. Our local elementary school just so happens to be a top rated school with excellent test scores. After days and days of endless conversation, Johnathon and I set up a tour of the school. I was shocked that as we toured room by room and met teacher after teacher, I was actually liking the school.

We finally talked it through and decided that the girls would finish out their kindergarten year in public school and we would reevaluate our decision at the end of the year. So, our little ladies will no longer be homeschooled as of January 2013. I'm very sad with this decision because I was truly enjoying my time with the girls and homeschooling was going so smoothly. The girls were learning and reading...it was everything I hoped it would be. If it were only up to me, we would continue with that route. However, in order to do what is best for our family and each girl individually, I think they need to experience this for themselves and what better time to do that then in kindergarten!!

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I am writing this and being open with my readers in hopes that I can help at least one other family in their decision to adopt/foster. Please try not to judge us and OUR choice as we are doing what we think is right for OUR family. I would appreciate ONLY kind and encouraging comments. Thanks.

 

A few months ago I dropped the bombshell that Johnathon and I were going to adopt. Well, I figure it's time for an update.

 

We made a promise to ourselves that we would wait 6 months after we returned from deployment to make any major decisions so could enjoy that time as a family. We knew from the beginning that it would be after the first of the year before we made anything 100% with a certain agency. We found a few agencies that we really liked but it always came down to...

 

A) Private Domestic Adoption

or

B) Foster to Adopt through the county

 

There were a lot of pro and cons for each of them. For instance, a private domestic adoption would give us the opportunity to be picky (gender), but it came a cost. Literally! Not only would it cost us an arm and a leg, but most adoptions are open; meaning that the biological parents/extended family would continue to communicate with us. We just weren't sure if that was what was right for our family.

 

I have three sisters who were adopted out of foster care so I have seen first hand how that can affect not only the adopted child, but everyone involved.

 

It was a very hard choice and one that we went back and forth on almost daily.

 

In the end we decided to...

 

are you ready...

 

can you guess...

 

we are going to...

 

FOSTER!! (With the hopes of one day adopting through the foster system.)

 

More details coming tomorrow! :)

Future Learning Room

With me no longer working afternoons, I have plenty of time on my hands. That's not always a good thing when your husband is halfway around the world in unknown waters doing things that he can't discuss. So...I've been trying to stay busy planning the decor, organization and DIY projects for our new house we will be moving into this Summer.

Can you blame me?!

I showed you all a few ideas that I have for Alyssa & Allison bedroom and now I am working on our learning room. I went back and forth with this debating whether or not I should make our 4th bedroom a learning room or toy/guest room.

My first reaction was LEARNING ROOM!! I hate the fact that my dining room always falls victim to such chaos. Johnathon and I are pretty firm with the whole 'eating dinner at the table as a family' (when he's home and we don't live in a sardine can sized apartment!) and I can't stand the

countless colorful pictures and broken crayons everywhere as I am trying to eat.

BUT, I also can't stand the constant picking up of toys and childish clutter that quickly accumulates when you have three small children. The mess this last week alone has been enough to make me want to pull my hair out. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of being able to shut the door and company not being able to see the mess that often takes over my living room.

I finally decided that as awesome as having a full 100% learning room would be, my sanity is more important to me. :)

The tricky part, for me anyway, is how I now try to keep my dining room a true dining room without sacrificing my children's enjoyment of school. Are you understanding any of this?

#1 Goal:

Create a CLASSY homeschool room that can quickly be converted into a dining room on a moments notice.

*all ideas and pictures are from pinterest and you can find the links to all websites by going there.*

This is calendar #1. My plan is to create a ledge on the wall where I can prop up this cork board (other side will be a white board) and I will then frame out the area. It will be as easy as taking the board down when guests are there and I can then hang some sort of art in the framed area and viola! The calendar will be a huge focal point when I need it to be and gone when I need it to be...plus no holes in the wall to hang it.

Calendar #2...I love how this mom used rings to keep all of the options together. No using rubber bands to keep them together and finding a place to store them.

I fell in love with this way to organize my construction paper. The bulk of my homeschool storage will be upstairs and this is a perfect way to get it off of a shelf and easy to get to.

I am just tickled with this find. It's not really a find as much as it is an inspiration. The girls do a lot of worksheets each day and I can't get over the fact that I never thought to combine all of their worksheets and put them on their own individual clip boards. This way they can take the worksheets anywhere throughout the house and do them at their own pace. It helps me out a lot actually. With two girls doing the exact same worksheets, this will hopefully prevent them from cheating.

This sign just says it all.

Plus I can hang it in my dining room without it looking like a preschool.

The one thing that I am most excited about trying out are these seat sacks.  I plan on using a fabric that matches my dining room curtains and attaching one to each of the girls' seats, including Madelynn's. Of course hers will probably just hold coloring pages and a small box of crayons, this is a great place to store Alyssa and Allison's worksheet clip boards and other books that we are reading. I have even thought about making one for myself and storing my teacher manuals in there. This will get the books off of the table without making it necessary for a bookshelf in the room.

So there you have it, my plans for our future learning room. I am pretty excited to move and get started on all of my pinterest finds. It just seems pointless to start any of them now, it would just be more things to pack and unpack.

We should be hearing something about new orders by the end of next week. I am a nervous wreck! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as this is a big deal for our young family.

Even though communication is very little right now, Johnathon sends his love to everyone and says that he is safe. Regardless of what he says, as his wife, I still worry about him constantly. We are 2 1/2 months into this deployment already.

Can you believe it is February?! 

First Day of School

The girls woke me around 6am begging me to start school. Of course that put a smile on my face, but I was determined to get another hour of sleep.

Fast forward to 8:15am when I woke up to Madelynn placing her soft hand on my cheek and saying, 'Mommy, wake up' very quietly. I knew it was bound to be a good day.

I got all three girls dressed and fed before turning on an episode of Dora for Madelynn (yes, I am THAT kind of mom) and getting to work with the twins.

We started with writing their names and drawing a self portrait. That was interesting.

We said our pledge, went over our bible verse, talked about what day it was, discussed the weather, did worksheets on the letter Ff, learned about dinosaurs, read a few poems, colored, used scissors...and all before 10am. We were on a roll!

Nana picked up the girls around 10:15 so they could go with her to Bloomington while I went to work.

Tonight we will review what we did today and read chapter 1 of The Boxcar Children.

I'm so happy with how today went and I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

One down side?...forgetting my camera at my parent's house so I was unable to capture this moment in their lives. Oh well, life goes on.

:) Happy Homeschooling!!

Homeschool

As we begin this fabulous homeschool journey, I wanted to take a moment to share my feelings on why we chose to be a homeschooling family, what curriculum we chose to use and countless other topics on the subject.

If you are anything like I was a few years ago, then you are seriously uneducated on the whole idea of homeschooling. For me, it was intimidating to even think of such an idea. It wasn't until I noticed a few friends of mine starting to speak out about their decision to homeschool that I realized...this may be the best idea yet!!

It's very important to me that I start off by saying that we are in no way 'anti-public school'. Johnathon and I both attended public school and turned out just fine. Our decision mainly stems from the fact that we are (and will continue to be) a military family. That unfortunately means lots of moving and new schools. I knew that is not what I wanted for my children. It was also about this time when my niece, Emma, was caught kissing a boy in kindergarten. I suddenly had flashbacks to the conversations and stories that were told at school and on the bus. That was my moment! The moment that I knew we would homeschool the girls until we felt they had strong enough morals to not be swayed in a negative direction.

At the time I was a stay-at-home mom anyway, so the decision was an easy one to make. The idea that Johnathon and I would solely be accountable for molding our little ladies into young intelligent women was such a thrill. I dove into researching different methods and to be quite honest, it was too much information for me to take in so quickly. I decided that I wanted a very structured curriculum and ordered catalogs from websites that offered such. I know that may not be what's best for most families and they prefer a more laid back attitude, but that is just how I am. I needed schedule, detail and projects planned to the exact day that they would be done!! I know that life happens and not everything goes as planned so please save the lecture on how I need to relax. :) Thanks.

I finally settled on Sonlight. It's a christian based curriculum that includes Bible, History, Science, Reading, Writing, Math and so much more. All of the books have been carefully chosen to teach good morals and life lessons. It's fabulous.

I did buy our curriculum brand new and I know that is not an option for some families...we did so at tax time, 6 months early!!

Our already tiny dinning room has been transformed into our 'learning room' and each of the girls has their own desk. My plan occupy Madelynn with a fun game at the table while I go through the days lessons with the twins. It's going to be a challenge, but one that I am so excited for.

I have also added a new tab at the top of the page for those of you interested in knowing what we are up to week-by-week. We don't start for a few weeks, but week one is already posted!!

Our Learning Room

I've been meaning to post these pictures for awhile now, but it seems like the perfect time. Alyssa and Allison do not start their formal preschool curriculum until next Fall, but we are doing our best to get everything prepared.

Right now 'school' is just sitting around our kitchen table singing our alphabet, doing crafts and attempting to do simple worksheets. We usually have some fun music playing in the background and end our day playing with some play-doh.

I'm doing my best to get everything in order and organized. It's a lot of thought and work, but nothing I can't handle and don't enjoy!!

Some of the artwork in the next picture is old, but will soon be replaced with the numerous pages we have filled just since being home.

It's hard to sit back and watch all of these mothers around me start on this homeschooling journey when we still must wait another year. I am eager and ready to begin this new chapter in our lives. It excites me and I am carefully counting down the days until we, too, can start our curriculum.

I started working on our classroom 'Treasure Chest' today. Cutting tattoos and stickers that will accompany candy and small prizes that the girls will be able to pick from when they do well with their school work or even when they help me out around the house. I love how home and school will be tied together as one. Cooking, homemaking, learning...it's all hand in hand!

I hope you all enjoyed your picture tour of my dining room, er, I mean learning room!! :)