Happy Halloween 2008

Oh my sweet princess Sleeping Beauty..any magic spells that will keep her a little princess forever?

Here is my Pouting Peter Pan.Maybe Captain Hook got the best of him or maybe he just didn't want to grow up. Either way I love this little guy...he's a lover and a fighter!

Happy Memories

Our Resort The Coronado Springs Resort

Kids in the hammock that they loved to play and rest in.

Me and my best friend; we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on the trip.

Sad News - Happy Video

It has been a very difficult week for us. Mom, my husband's mother, was put in the hospital and then moved to ICU for breathing difficulties. She is on a respirator and unable to breathe on her own. Needless to say we are worried, concerned, and worn out. Each day I find things that make me miss her. Perhaps it is strange that Mom and Dad are in a way our best friends? But they are. Please pray for her to recover and for Dad to remain strong throughout this trial. I am posting a video below that is happy. I needed to do that today. I also made brownies with Triple H..I needed brownies. Below is a video of Princess Poodle's birthday celebration at Chef Mickey's in DisneyWorld. There is singing, dancing, and lots of smiles. I needed to smile. I hope it makes you smile too.

Back to Hazelnut Academy

Fall Break was what I needed it to be. We started back today with a good review in all the basic subjects. We will continue our review this week as well as enjoy some fun halloween stories and crafts. Our trip to Dinsey was once again so much fun. I really couldn't put it into one post. Seeing my kids who often argue holding hands in the park with one another. Riding Soarin which was the most amazing experience. Seeing my 4 year old light up at the sight of donald and mickey and chip and dale. I have to say Epcot was a bigger hit than I expected and I am starting to see the benefits of homeschooling. My kids enjoyed the educational rides as much as the others. I remember asking a man at lunch about a certain ride or two and he said he recommended not to do them because it would bore the kids...but it didn't! Even my 4 year old boy loved seeing vegetables grow outside of soil and the fish hatchery. The show, The American Adventure, was well done and captivated both of them. Our resort was beautiful and we enjoyed watching the sunset over the lake and the giant waterslide was a hit with the kids. THe Halloween parade, show and fireworks were unbelievable. The headless horseman kicked off the parade by riding through main street in the magic kingdom. So cool!!! I hope we can save our money to return next year. We made the kids no promises but did talk to them about how working together to save our money would give us a better chance.

As for school it is a new quarter. I have spent so much time in prayer asking God to help me with patience and gentleness. Today was a great day. We are off now after rest time to go on a nature hike on one of the trails in our neighborhood. Who knows what we might see today.

Also on my thoughts are choices for next year. I seem to do this sooner each year..its not even November yet. I am looking into a science curriculum for the first time. R.E. A. L. Science (read, explore, absorb. learn). I believe we will do earth science and space next year. So much fun!!! I am continuing to look into a geography study for next year instead of the second half of American history. Also I plan to start some intro to cursive in January with Princess Poodle. I ordered Abeka and hope I like it.

Ok...really off to go outside now. Have a wonderful week.

FALL BREAK!!!

Fall Break has officially begun. We will not have school for two weeks. Princess Poodle will still do random math fact sheets ...I don't want to lose our progress in this area. She is also finishing reading Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims and will read Thanksgiving on Thursday while we are on break. Apart from that the only educational things will be the ones will get while at Disney. Epcot appears to have alot that is educational but the trip is for fun and education will come second on this trip.

I am in more need of this break than I ever have been before. It's not homeschooling, its me and there is so much I need to talk to God about, so much "breathing" I need to do, and even though we will be active for half of the break while on vacation I plan on my spirit being still. Soaking up the blessings God has had mercy on me to give and loving on the three special blessings that I call my family.

Transparency is needed more often between believers and to those believers that are reading this post please know that you are not alone when you have a down spell. This past quarter has been the worst so far of our schooling. Not the learning but my attitude. I have raised my voice, spoke in harshness, felt like staying in bed all day instead of loving on my kids...I have snapped at my husband,threatened public school on my daughter and I have disliked myself and I feel somewhat lost. But our God is a God of forgiveness and so I will accept this gift he gives and pray for a spirit that is more in tune with Him, a more obedient spirit, a more joyful spirit. And I pray for sleep because I feel the lack of it is playing a crucial role in my attitude and weakness.

So Fall Break here I come. As a little girl I remember catching falling leaves with my sisters that fell from an old tree in front of my Mamaw and Papaw's trailer. We believed that if we caught one in the air and made a wish, the wish would come true. I guess as I have gotten older I have come to believe in prayers more than wishes. But for this two weeks, not putting sound theology aside but maybe just on hold for a bit, I will become like that kid again and believe in wishes and wishes come true.

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes! Disney here we come!

Sheryl

For Mary

Mary, you left a comment on a post I have about First Grade Curriculum. I couldn't figure out how to respond to you so I thought I'd leave a message here in the hope's you would get it. I did do Ancients with my dd for Kindergarten. History is her favorite subject so she was enthralled. My suggestion is however, if you plan to do SOTW I feel that the early modern is a bit much for a 6 year old. I decided to use only the chapters that had to do with American History. I came up with a history plan that I used to have posted here but took it off because I never found the time to update it. Basically I used a spine, living books, videos, and projects, all which I found on websites, book lists etc. If I could do it over again I would start Kindergarten/First grade with a geography/culture year; I am thinking about Galloping the Globe for next year. I think this will be good for a foundation before starting into ancients and I think that it is easily made interesting for young learners. Then I would go into Ancients after that. I do remember last year during Ancients my daughter saying things like, "When are we going to learn about our country" etc. I guess "home" is more tangible to young kids than far off countries thousands of years ago. lol....Thats the great thing about doing a geography/culture year...when you come to the continent of North America you can spend as much time there as you want. You could even go into learning about your state etc. You could learn some basic early American History before you move on to another continent. I'm all about tweaking. So with my kids my "plan" is this.
2009/2010: PreK(5) and 2nd grade: Geography//Culture (GAlloping the Globe?)
2010/2011 Kinder (6) and 3rd: Ancients
20011/2012: First grade: 4th grade: Middle Ages/Ren.
2012/2013 2nd grade 5th grade Early Modern (American History time as well)
2013/2014 3rd grade 6th grade Modern

This would put the cycle staring back at Ancients when my dd is in 7th and my ds in in 4th.
I haven't thought yet about state history or what if our adoption of a third child comes in etc. To be honest now that I have typed this out it is freaking me out because the thought of my baby boy in 3rd grade and my sweet little princess in 6th grade is pretty scary!!!! I hope this helps and I hope you see this post. For everyone else that had to muddle through it I'm so sorry!
Sheryl

Hazel"nut" Academy Update

Language Arts: Princess Poodle continues to work on her Spelling Workout A independently. It is really too easy for her but I didn't want to skip it. I am not sure if we will continue on to level B or not. Spelling is a subject that baffles me. Writing with Ease Level One is going well with a little tweaking. Princess Poodle is getting better every week at picking out the most important parts of a passage and turning these thoughts into a narration. She is also doing well on very simple dication that we do a couple of times a week to prepare her for next year. I have let poetry memorization slide and thus far this year we have only learned two new poems. Mental note: put new fervor into this. We will be picking back up with FLL when we return from Fall Break. It correlates with WWE and is easy to implement along side it.

Math: Saxon 2: We are still working on math fact drills, the most recent being the plus nines. Princess Poodle is thriving with her facts now that the timer is gone. I must admit that this is not a very fun subject to teach.

History: American History has been a big hit around here. We started the Mayflower/Pilgrims this week. We have made Pilgrim puppets, read lots of living books, and watched a video on William Bradford. We are using some elements of History Pockets for this unit. I believe the kids will like having a pilgrim history pocket to pull from and play with when we are done.

Science: science is on hold for now except at her co-op where she is learning about cells.

Theology/Bible: I am impressed with the kids ability to learn the catechism questions and answers and I know this is an important foundation. I feel something is lacking in this area of our schooling. Papa was supposed to handle this but the demands of his work, SS class, and other responsibilities has this being pushed out. The kids do learn verses for Awana each week but something is missing. I am praying about this. Is it virtue education, is it modeling, or perhaps it is just the fruit of the Spirit that seems absent from school too often.

PreK: Triple H has learned his letter sounds. Is just about finished with the pre explode the code series. I have him learning the Ferris Wheel song from SSRW which should help with blending in the future. He can sound out some three letter words but not with great consistency yet. Today I took him to storytime at the library while big sister was in co-op. I also feel something is missing here. He joins in for science and history and therefore gets to do projects etc. Am I just worrying too much. I mean he knows his letters,his sounds, his shapes, etc. what need is there for a pre-K program. I just want to teach him to read ..when they can read everyones job gets easier and more fun. But I can't help but feel something is missing here too. Perhaps it is more storybooks. I keep saying that I will pull out my FIAR and do a book a week with a couple of activities for him but when would I do this? Next year I plan to do a geography study with the kids for history and I know how these books will work in then. But for now I have a blank. I am seeing a genuine need for a curriculum that can be multi-age in nature. My history plans for this year as well as my science plans accomplish this fairly well.

Myself: I am making the effort to read more. I have recently discovered Augustine's Confessions. Wow! Beautiful..soul searching stuff. I can't believe that I have in 33 years somehow missed reading this. I am also reading Andreoloa's Charlotte Mason Companion. So far it is a great read and is reaffirming something I feel God has been calling me to. I have this ever present struggle between creating a rigorous yet gentle learning environment. This book is addressing the gentle part of the equation.

Homeschooling Train of Thoughts: latin next year?,, I want to I want to. Cursive handwriting...I don't want to but I need to. Galloping the Globe for our geo/cultural studies...I think this might work along with tons of living books and some world art and cooking books. Fall break is needed. Sleep will make homeschooling better. Nature study needs to be more often. This week we will go on Thursday as long as it isn't lightening. Moving Triple H from letter sounds to blending..when will the lightbulb go off for him? Princess Poodle is more emtional this year. Balance challenge and victory.

Sleep Study: The Results

The sleep study results are in. For a little background information, I have had trouble sleeping for the past 15 years. It started in highschool. I would wake up often in one night's sleep. This has continued through the years. Some nights I wake up 4-5 times, other nights its double that. This leaves my body feeling fatigued, my emotions are snappy and easily set off. The everyday pace of life can seem daunting. Now to the results. I do NOT have sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, low oxygen levels, or snoring problems. That is the good part according to the clinic. However, they see horrible sleep architecture. Everyone while asleep goes through several phases of sleep. This starts off in a light sleep phase, progresses to a deep sleep phase (the most important), and then moves into the REM sleep or dream phase. A person will cycle through this many times in one night. According to the doctor the normal person will spend around 50 % of their total sleep time in the deep and REM stages of sleep. My total was less than 15 % and the majority of that 15 % was spent in REM not the deep sleep stage which is so crucial to restorative sleep for ones body. According to the doctor I am somehow skipping the deep phase of sleep and moving from the lighter stages into the REM stage where I then wake up. This is not good!!Its why I feel like a mac truck has hit me everyday. Now for my reactions to the study. One the positive side I feel validated. There is a reason I feel like I do and it is not in my head. I havn't somehow mentally convinced myself I am sleeping bad..I really am. There is relief in knowing you are not crazy. THe downside is that the doctor told me on the phone that they are baffled. Usually someone that has such poor sleep architecture will have one of the above mentioned problems that I don't have.

Where to go from here. I have an appointment with the neurologist at the end of the month. I know they want to run some more tests to rule out other health issues that could be causing this. After that I am not sure what the treatment options will be.

I don't want to pop a pill. And I am making small steps to better my nutrition, cut out sugar, caffeine has obviousley been cut out and to increase my exercise. (This is on hold due to an injury but will hopefully be going full force soon. I am going to seek my chiropractor's advice as well as look into a really good vitamin supplement. With that said if I can take some type of medication Temporarily! to help me until the above mentioned things start helping I will. And I'm going to pray.

Sleep affects everything. It affects your attitude, your ability to function well, it affects your memory, your performance, your mood. Lack of sleep makes everything more overwhelming than it really is. Lack of sleep makes it dangerous to drive, kills another kind of "drive", and makes one more prone to temptation and sin. Lack of sleep can even lead to major health problems. Lack of sleep is dangerous.

I know that God is aware of my sleep problems. I know that He has forgiven the sins that I give into so easily with little to no sleep. I need to believe more that He cares enough about me to help me.
I wish I had some great words of wisdom that related to this. This sweet lady named Ali in GA writes so well about life and somehow manages to see God's gentle reminders in all of it. Right now I guess I'm all out of wisdom. I have no answers and at this point I don't really know why God has allowed this to go on the way it has. I pray God gives me a spirit of obedience, a spirit of perserverance, and a spirit of hope. I need all of these things to get through this.

I know this post has little to do with school so thanks for bearing with me.

Sheryl