We are done with school for right now and summer activities will begin to take its place. I'm also working a few extra hours so time to blog has been minimal. I will post at least once a week for those who have stuck with me :)

William will begin swimming lessons next week as well as working at my mom's farm for a few days while she is on a trip to the Grand Canyon. He also has a new pony that he and a friend will be training over the summer. At the end of July, we'll be heading with family to Tennessee for some inner tubing down the river. I'll get some pictures as I am able.

Normally this summer I would be planning for next school year but as we still have Lifepacs available we'll be continuing them next year. Right now our summer schedule will depend on the time that swimming lessons begin. Most of summer school will consist of 2 book lessons a day and some read alouds. I said I would read more classics over this year, but every time I've started one I've put it down. I find some of them a bit boring to be honest.

I'll post again next week, and I hope all of you have a great summer!

Only a few more weeks into the school year and I really want William to finish at least 1 more round of paces before we head into summer. I'm going to let him have some time off, then we'll do maybe 2-3 subjects a day plus read alouds. I do miss the Ambleside read alouds.

Not much is going on right now. I had a nice Mother's Day. I got a pink flower and a card. I spent the day with my mom and grandmother. We had a nice potluck lunch at my grandmother's house next door. William also hugged me multiple times and told me Happy Mother's Day.

We did a science experiment that I've always wanted to try but never did. William is doing a Lifepac about plants now and there was an experiment with a celery stem to show how water is transported through the stem. Instead of celery, I picked a white flower from my mom's garden and placed it into a glass of blue water. We brought it home and left it overnight. The next day the edges of the flower had turned blue. I tried to take a picture but the batteries in the camera had died and I never got new ones. The blue edges were very pretty on the flower. William also looked at the stem through a magnifying glass so he could see the tunnels that carry the water up through the stem to the leaves and the flower.

Our butterfly garden is looking nice, although I still need to weed. The snapdragons have come up, although I was wondering if they every would grow.

I'm working a few more hours starting this month so we're taking it easy for the last few weeks of this month. Since dh is off work for 2 days and it's impossible to get anyone to do anything when he's off work William is also taking a break for right now.

We're planning a vacation to Orlando for next year and I'm really excited about it. We always talk about going on vacation but we never really get to do anything. We don't use credit cards, so we'll be taking a cash vacation. That's partly what the extra hours I'm working will go to pay for. We'll be going to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Sea World, and Universal Studios.

Not much of an update, but I'm sure most people are out enjoying the nice weather and getting things finished up for the year. I'm catching up on blogs and enjoying reading about everyone's accomplishments. I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day and I'll post again in a few days.

I have the notes from the workshop on Saturday posted on my writing blog, Planning and Pondering, but I wanted to include something here as well about one of the speakers. I even bought his book even though I said I wasn't going to buy anything :) He really inspired me.

________________

During our lunch break I bought a book written by Peter Bowerman. The book is called The Well-Fed Writer. I then attended the talk given by Mr. Bowerman. The talk was only 50 minutes long, so he couldn't share as much information as he could have. He is funny, down to earth, and very relaxed. He obviously enjoys what he does. He signed my book for me as well. Mr. Bowerman is a freelance writer who offers copywriting and other writing services to businesses. He's been doing this since 1994 and when he started he had no writing experience, only sales and marketing experience. His books and his talk was how to get started writing for businesses. I have to say he inspired me. Most of the writers attending the meetings were working on novels or other types of creative writing, but something in Peter's book hit me - why not write for businesses to pay the bills and then have time left during the day to write what you want? After his talk I asked him how successful someone who lives in a small town could be with this writing. While he admitted that it would be more difficult, it would not be impossible. More people are working by e-mail, telephone and fax today than working face to face. I'm reading a bit more in his book every day and will begin making a concerted effort to market myself within the month. He has some e-books available on his site and one I'm interested in is called "Cold Calling Without Fear." I have to admit that is one thing I am scared of doing. I wish I could just stick up a website and have people find me!

----------------

If you want to read about the entire day, check out the post on the other blog. I really did have a great time and learned a lot.

I was going through our Tivo list of shows to see what to save and what to delete when I saw a show called "Icons" that had been taped on TechTV. William has started watching various shows on TechTV such as X-Play, a show that rates various games on enjoyment, graphics, difficulty, etc.

I checked to see what the "Icons" show was about and William told me that he had taped it. He said it was about the man who wrote the music for the Final Fantasy games. Later on he told me about the composer - how the man didn't speak English, he'd been working with music since he was a little boy, he gave me details about this man's life based on this TV show.

I didn't say a word. It's not about Mozart or Beethoven, but he learned a little something about a composer who is writing music for something enjoyed TODAY. That makes it real - that makes it something he can relate to now and maybe, possibly, he can appreciate what came before.

He's also including some English lessons while watching the shows. He recently watched an episode of X-Play where they discussed one of his favorite games, Shadow the Hedgehog. They gave it a poor rating, so he said that tomorrow he wants to send them an email and tell them why the rating they gave was wrong and why it's one of his favorite games. So not only is he learning about music, but he's writing opinion letters as well :)

The best part is he doesn't even realize that he's taking control of his own education and using skills he's learned from school ... so shhh, don't tell him :)

I'll be heading off to a writer's workshop tomorrow in Smyrna, GA. My mom is driving me and spending time with my brother while I'm there because I'm a baby when it comes to driving around Atlanta. I'll be posting some info about the workshop and what I learned on my writing blog. An editor is offering a deal on her services so I'll be dropping off the synopsis and the first 5 pages of my manuscript while there. I'll get the edited version and some tips within 4-6 weeks after the meeting. I hope she thinks it's good. I'm always nervous when I put my work out there for people to see, but I'm never going to have something published if I don't do that. I thought about a psuedonym, but I want to see my name on a book on the shelf at Waldenbooks, not a false name. So, wish me luck!

Spunky Homeschool is having a contest! Spunky is giving away a Benz Microscope and Apologia Biology Set this week. Click Here to get the details.

It's May, the last month of our school year. William has agreed to continue doing some of his Lifepacs so he can get up to his current grade level. He's enjoyed them so far and his grades are very good. He likes getting grades. After he does something he asks me to grade it and usually says something like "Give me an A" or "Give me a 100". I only keep track of the grades on his Lifepace self-tests and pace tests, though. So far he has A's in everything. He's finished his first set of Lifepacs and has started on his 2nd.

Our butterfly garden is growing well. I need to go out and get it weeded and some grass cut around it. I don't know if any of our bulbs will bloom this year. So far only the phlox is showing any color. We have seen butterflies but mostly they've been around our azalea bushes instead of the garden.

William is doing well on his weekend job. He is earning money and has learned about saving for what you want versus spending it right now. At first he was always spending his money but now he's realized that he wants to save it more than spend it. He has allowed himself to spend about $5 every weekend from his money. He usually rents a game or movie with the money, but sometimes he will want McDonald's fries or a soda. My dh and I have given up on soda so we don't have it around the house as often as we used to, so William now considers it a treat.

William is now wearing glasses. We've found that he's farsighted. He doesn't wear them as often as he should, but we're working with him on getting used to them. I keep meaning to take a picuture. I'll be sure to get one this week.

On the 16th the public school kids are out of school a half day, so we're going on a field trip with my brother, his girlfriend, and all the kids. That's 4 kids with all of us. We're going to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center. It's part of the college in Columbus, GA as well. My brother has been before but we've never gone, so it's a way for all of us to be together and for the kids to get some time together as well.

He's still reading White Fang and we're reading a mixture of stories as read alouds - Bullfinch's Mythology, Stories of King Arthur, and Farmer Boy. This summer I really want to do more read alouds with him as well as have him read more on his own.

I'm happy we got the Lifepacs because I'm not stressing over the curriculum for this year or next year anymore. I do want to plan some books for read alouds, but that is all. It's nice to feel the freedom at the end of a school year instead of stress. Whenever I think William didn't like the material or didn't learn anything, he'll just spout out something that he read from the Lifepacs and I know that it was worth it. Plus he's seeing progress in himself by finishing a workbook as well as seeing grades, so that is an incentive for him as well. At the end of the year I'm going to make up a report card for him and we'll have a little end of the year party too to make it special.

We'll probably continue to do a full week of school with all subjects until the end of the month. Then it will slow to maybe 2-3 subjects with a lot of reading thrown in, as well as time with his cousin and friends this summer and maybe a summer job. I think that this year we're finally getting somewhere.