This past week has been great on the homeschooling front. Work is getting done, William is writing and spelling on his own, and we're getting along better. Maybe it's because it seems spring is finally here and we're no longer freezing and cooped up.

We went on another nature walk on Wednesday. I found a list of items to find on a nature scavenger hunt, so we tried to take pictures of the items we found. We'll go on another next week and maybe spend a bit more time. This was a quick walk of about 15-20 minutes as we had to leave for a dentist appointment. Most of the pictures were taken by William.

This is the trail in the state park:



We found moss on a rock:



and a fallen log:



and a mushroom on a tree:



William wanted this picture to be of the grass on the list. I believe it's a saw palmetto bush, but I'm not positive. He said if it was, it counts as grass and a bush.



He took this picture of the rocks on a hill:



There is a spider web in this picture with a tiny spider in the center. You can see the sun shining on the web from this angle.



We also found a purple flower:



And a seed:



And finally trees and clouds:



We did see a bee but weren't able to get a picture of it. That was going to be our insect. We also saw some birds flying overhead.

This is the list we used:

Plants - grass, tree, flower, bush, moss, water plant, seed, cactus
Animals - spider, insect, amphibian, reptile, mammal, bird, fish
Decomposer - lichen, mushroom, worm, snail, slug, centipede
Water source - stream, pond, puddle, rain, fog
Inanimate objects - bone, shell, fossil, twig, rock, log, nest, burrow, scat, cloud

William and I thought we'd head down to our butterfly garden and see how things were doing. We took the camera and thought we'd take some pictures along the way.

The first thing we saw was a bird on a branch...



We have some shoots coming up from 1 of the places we planted bulbs...



The phlox I planted to be groundcover is doing nicely. It even has some little flowers on it now...



On the way back to the house we passed a patch of clover. We stopped for a minute to look for a 4 leaf clover.



I saw some lillies blooming a bit down from where we were, but the yard is overgrown near where they are. I have no idea why lillies were planted down there, but they're there. I also saw some purple coneflower in a little group that I want to get a picture of. My mom also has a white tulip in her garden, so I want to get a picture of it as well.

Tomorrow we plan to go on another nature walk in the state park nearby. I found a list of scavenger hunt items, so we'll see how many we can find and take a picture of. We'll also try to identify them when we get home. After our walk tomorrow, we have to head to the dentist office for William's check up.

Why Homeschool is hosting the 13th Homeschooling Carnival. Head over and check it out. Since this is the 13th carnival, the theme is "lucky week 13." There are 13 categories related to the number 13.

Happy reading :)

I shared a few days ago that I actually rode one of my mom's mules for the first time. Her previous trainer and her friend was staying there for a month and the day before they left I got a lesson. That evening we ate some dinner and sat around the table talking. The trainers were saying that I looked natural in the saddle and did well for a first time. They also said that most of the time the love of animals, especially horses, goes from one generation to the next. I was confused about this. I knew my mom had had a horse when she was younger, but all of the pets we'd ever had when we were little had been given away or suddenly "ran away". I think that is a main reason why I seem to "collect" strays. But back on the subject, I said "But my mom hadn't had a horse since she was like, 10, then all of sudden about 10 years ago she buys all this land, builds a house, and says 'I'm going to train mules'. I mean, where did that come from? It was out of the blue." My mom said, "Oh, I've wanted to do this for years. Ask your dad." Suddenly, I felt very hurt. I'm not exactly sure why, but as I explained to my husband the next day, I felt upset because I had never known that my mom had a dream of owning land and raising horses and mules. She raised me for 17 years and I had absolutely no idea.

After this conversation, I started feeling upset again for the times I had felt left out when I was younger - when my parents would go out for coffee or dinner at the local diner and leave us at home, when my mom worked first shift as a nurse but didn't pick us up from school, when we had a parent teacher night and no one bothered to come, when I wrote a story or poem and got comments like 'that's nice' after a quick glance before they went back to what they were doing before, when they bought a burned up shell of a house on the other part of town and wouldn't let me or my brothers help with the painting or any other part of the restoration. And a lot of these times weren't when we were very little - they bought the house to remodel when I started high school.

I realized then that yet again I was parenting my son differently than my parents had raised me. My son knows most of my hopes and dreams - he and my dh cheered me on when I began going to college, they are happy each time I sell a book, he knows one of my deepest desires is to visit London, and he knows that I want to build a house one day. These are things we discuss often, as a family. I know that his main dream, while it may change almost daily, is to be an animal cop and live somewhere with lots of snow. I know he loves science and sometimes says he wants to be a scientist that will cure cancer and macular degeneration, 2 things that have hit our family in the past and the present. I think that this discussion, this give and take that we have in our family, is another benefit of homeschooling. We are together so much as a family that it's just natural to share these parts of ourselves with each other. My parents were usually working and we were in school or with friends, so we didn't really become close until after I was an adult and married.

I understand that as parents we are the adults. We aren't going to share every facet of our life with our children, especially when they are young. We aren't going to share times when we're worried about finances or work problems. However, as children get older, I do think it's important to share those things with them. I believe that sharing hopes, dreams and fears help make us human to our children. I also believe that when we share a hope and a dream and then work to make it come true, it shows our children that they can also realize a dream of their own.

Share a bit of yourself with your children today. Tell your 5 year old daughter that when you were little you wanted to be a ballerina just like she does today. Tell your son that when you were in elementary school you wanted to be an astronaut. Tell your teenager about the family budget, and when it's time for them to get a part-time job help them make up one of their own. Do something to realize a dream you've had for a long time and share it with your family. Don't be a stranger to your children.

Not much book work has been done but lots of other stuff.

Our butterfly garden seems to be doing well. When we watered the other day we some little shoots coming up from one area where we planted bulbs. As I said, I don't think we'll have butterflies this year, so when our azaleas start blooming in another section of the yard we'll go looking for eggs and cocoons there.

William got to ride a little while last week before the instructor returned to Michigan. And I got to ride too. I got my first lesson. It was scary at first, but after a little while I got used to the movement. I don't know that I'll ever do it again, though. William has been helping around my mom's farm as well - feeding the animals and such - trying to earn money for a new gaming system.

My brother is down for the weekend. He and his girlfriend have announced that they will be getting married in September :) They are looking at different places to have the ceremony.

Dh's car needs a new engine, so we've been looking for another vehicle and I've been working a few more hours to pay for another vehicle. Until we get one, karate class seems to be on hold since I would have to borrow a vehicle to get there and back.

William has been asking questions like how a lamp turns on and off, how an engine works, stuff like that. I've answered what I could but referred him to other sources when I couldn't tell him the answer. I like that he's curious about things and willing to learn.

Things are just going on as usual, nothing really exciting, just normal. I guess that's why I haven't posted a lot. We'll be back on our regular schedule on Monday, though.

I normally don't do this, but since I love this product so much I knew that I had to do this. I know you guys have read about me mentioning Tivo before - you may have even heard some celebrities talk about it if you watched the Academy Awards. I got an email from them about their new pricing plans. If you've ever considered a Tivo, this is by far the best deal I've seen.

You can get a brand new Tivo box, with service included, for $16.95 per month for 3 years. And don't worry about the 3 year committment - once you have Tivo you'll wonder how you lived without it.

I purchased my box refurbished from ebay a few years ago and I only pay $12.95 per month for service on that box. I plan to get this deal as well so I can replace my refurbished box with a new one and pay only $4 more per month than I'm paying now.

For those of you who may not know about Tivo - it's a box & a system that allows you to record your favorite TV shows without worry about tape. The programs record digitally on a hard drive. You access the menu from the Tivo remote, watch the show when you want to watch it, then delete it when you're done. You can search for your favorite actors, TV shows, movies, or even keywords. I use it for homeschooling this way - when William studies certain topics, I enter a keyword for the topic. The Tivo will search the cable listings and find shows that fit the topic. They even have a wish list - if you want to search for a movie you haven't seen in a while, put it on your wish list. When the movie plays, Tivo will find it for you.

You can also pause live TV using the Tivo, and if you come in on the middle of a show and want to see the beginning, you can rewind up to 30 minutes back, as long as you stay on the same channel. Tivo works on whatever system you have - antenna, cable, satellite, whatever.

Some satellite companies offer a DVR with their system, but ask if they offer a wish list or keyword searches - they do not.

If you decide to purchase one and they ask for a referral email, please consider putting in my email - clr 1971 @ alltel . net - without the spaces - so I can get credit, okay?

I tried really hard NOT to make this sound like an advertisement, but I know it reads that way. I wanted to say that this is me writing, I just really wanted to tell everyone about this great deal since I do love and use this product.

Sometimes, when people find out that we homeschool, they actually have many questions and are supportive. However, I am finding that I don't like it when public and private schoolers ask for help with curriculum or advice for afterschooling or pre-schooling.

I received a question from a friend the other day about helping her daughter learn to read and her numbers and such before starting kindgergarten. Since personally I am a homeschooling advocate, plus I believe on waiting to start formal education until at least age 7, I'm not sure how to politely answer questions like these. Along with reading programs such as Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, I usually recommend Charlotte Mason materials and the book Better Late Than Early, plus I recommend homeschooling instead of sending the child to kindergarten. Even if the parent feels they cannot or don't intent to homeschool, I at least ask them to think it over until time for first grade. I feel that in order to be true to homeschooling I need to do this. No one has gotten offended at me for doing this - I made a choice on how to educate my son and they have the same right to choose how to educate their children. I just feel it's strange that someone who doesn't plan to homeschool asks for advice from homeschoolers about lessons and curriculum, even states that homeschooling is a positive thing, but doesn't want to homeschool. Anyone else think this is strange?

William has been enjoying the Lifepacs. We've finally settled into a routine, I think. Each day I write the pages to be covered on the white board. The books are in a plastic drawer cubby I bought from a discount store. He completes the pages - some alone and some with help. Every other day or so I go over what he's done and make sure he understands the material. Sometimes he thinks he got the material wrong, though. For example, one question it asked about different animals and he wrote down that wolves have fur, fish have scales, etc. However, the book then stated "did you say that animals are different sizes and shapes and live in different areas?" I told him that he was correct, he was just thinking more and the books apparently were just giving the basic answers that most kids would probably say. I know that if I had been doing them for school I would have given the easiest answers possible.

That's something else I've noticed with William since he's been homeschooled from 3rd grade. He hasn't learned the tricks to getting away with little work, things that I would do in school like skimming ahead for the answers or answering questions with 1 word only. He doesn't think that way and I'm glad of that. I want him thinking outside the box. Many people don't like the Lifepacs because they say their kids eventually figure out how to get the right answers but not learn the material. I just hope that William doesn't figure that out. I did notice in his science material that it didn't seem like he was understanding the material, so while out running errands this week we discussed the material in the car. I'll go over it again before he moves ahead in the book and be sure he understands it.

We also watched a TLC Elementary School episode about equality. It touched on the civil rights movement, the revolutionary war, and women's rights. I wasn't able to answer a lot of William's questions - and he had some really good ones as well. I'm going to suggest he talk to my mom about some of them. She grew up in the 60s and attended an integrated high school here in town. She remembers a lot of the changes that took place during that time period and possibly can explain some things to William. His main question, though, is always "Why?" as in, "Why were people treated differently because they were black?" I can never answer that question to his satisfaction.

The butterfly garden is coming along well. I hope we'll actually have some butterflies this year. There is one tiny flower on the phlox that was planted. The violets are doing okay. None of the bulbs have come up yet, though. I'm scared it may be next year before we see any butterflies down there. I've been watering it every other day and checking for weeds as well.

William has been spending time at my mom's, taking care of the animals and such. He hasn't been riding yet, just driving. He really wants to ride before his riding teacher leaves for Michigan again.

It is such a beautiful spring day here, so I'm knocking off work early and going to get Scott and go somewhere. We really should do some housework, but this is truly a perfect day and I don't want to be inside.

I'm finishing up my first children's adventure book, Mystery of Loch Ness. I'm going to get my dh to draw the pictures for the book. Hopefully it will be available by April. The book is written for late elementary students, probably 3rd-6th grade.

I'm also working on 2 ideas for more books. The first book idea is about the different ways that people homeschool. If anyone is interested in answering some questions, please email me at gift_lady@alltel.net and I can send the questions to you.

The second idea is a current book about homeschool graduates. If you are a homeschool graduate or have a child that has graduated - it doesn't matter how long ago - I would like to hear your story and ask some questions. I can't find a lot of information about homeschooled graduates, just one book that was published some years ago. So much has changed though, and many people who oppose homeschooling want to know "what happens after?" Email me with your story if you would like.

Thanks again for all of your help and support.

I haven't mentioned my book recently, so I'll do so now.

I wrote a book last year about my first year as a homeschooling parent. It was written in diary format, similar to this blog, but it was kept as a html document on my family homepage. In between the diary entries I've written new entries about how I feel and how things have changed now that I've homeschooled for going on 3 year now.

You can purchase the book Life Lessons from my Cafe Press store for $12.99 for a wirebound copy. However, if you don't mind reading off the computer, I am offering copies in pdf format for only $5 paid via Stormpay or Paypal. If you would like to purchase a copy, the email address for payment is gift_lady@yahoo.com for both processors. You will recieve your pdf copy within 12 hours after payment.

My Cafe Press store also offers T-shirts and other items. Currently the logos still say 2005, but I will be working on new logos this week and will have 2006 items up by the weekend.

Thanks for reading the blog and all the support everyone offers in their comments.