Church Callings

Today, Chris was set apart as the new Deacon's Quorum President. Last week, Marly was set apart as the new Mia Maid's First Counselor. Sam has been the First Counselor in her Laurel Class for several months. I am very aware that Heavenly Father has prepared them for these new leadership opportunities. I have seen great improvements in my children in their abilities, their maturity, and their desire to serve. Some I believe is because of educating my children using the Thomas Jefferson Education method, but I know all can be attributed to Heavenly Father and His knowledge of their missions in this life.

The ward we live in has a very large youth, 40 young women and 20 young men. When our youth went to the Snowflake Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead the Temple workers thought it was a youth stake activity, not just one ward. I am very thankful for the service provided to my children by their leaders and for our Bishop.

Even if we move this year, I feel confident that what my children learn during this season of service to their individual classes will prepare them for their future. I know my various callings have taught me so much. I'm excited to see what this new adventure brings.

Finding "Like-Minded" People

One of the things that has been the hardest about moving was leaving behind a community of home educators that were "like" us. When I decided to begin applying Thomas Jefferson Education (Leadership Education), the key for me was other families that helped me to learn and understand what it was. They helped me along in my infant stages of making the necessary changes in our lives to truly accomplish what I knew was right for our family.

We had the great privilege of being part of Arizona Liber Association of Families (AzLAF) which sort of became Homeschooling with Intention and Purpose (HIP) Arizona. Marly and Chris also attended the Thomas Jefferson Leadership Academy classes which were fabulous. In our new area, we cannot find other TJED homeschoolers. I have tried to start a few things, but it has not worked out yet.

My kids are in the beginnings of the Scholar Phase and need to have like-minded peers. It has been a real issue for us. I found TJED Academy and Prep School, which was started by Rachel and Oliver DeMille (and others). They also provide transcript and portfolio help for getting into college as a homeschooled TJED student, which I'm really looking forward to! I signed Marly up for one class this quarter to give it a try. I'm hoping this will help fill the void left by moving away from the TJED community we had.

Marlayna Turns 15!

Our sweet girl turned 15 this week. She is still adapting to the colder weather and asked for these warm boots for her birthday. We shopped till we dropped to find the right style in her size...she has small feet and boots fly off the shelves here as soon as they come in...and were rewarded with the perfect pair!


Only a few more months before this girl starts tearing up the streets learning to drive. Tonight is her party with 10 girls RSVP'ing so far. Should be a full house! She has tons of friends here and the girls all seem to get along fairly well. I'm so glad we found such good friends.

Her health has been really good this year. I'm so glad! I think we have found most of the things that trigger her Fibromyalgia problems. The Guaifenesin treatment helped the most and she has not been on it this whole past year. I think that when you catch Fibromyalgia early, you may not need to take it for the rest of your life. She also limits her dairy (including ALL milk proteins) and sugar intake, which she says helps a lot. I also read something recently linking immunizations to kids with Fibromyalgia, so we are not doing any more immunizations for her except tetanus.

Techno Dance, Harry Potter, and a Rooster

Techno Dance
Each month there is a Stake Dance here that Marlayna has been trying to attend (when she feels well enough to go). This month's theme was Techno and she had a bunch of glow-in-the-dark stuff that she put on. She looked so cute! (but, would not let me take a picture). She is making friends, but the nearest LDS kids live about 3.5 miles away and we are too far out of the way to successfully arrange carpools. I have to say that I am very proud of Marlayna because she never worries about showing up at an event by herself. She just goes right on in and joins the fun.

When I was her age, I was attached to my "pack" of friends. I was scared of arriving to things like dances by myself, I needed someone to go with. I even needed other girls to go to the bathroom with me, for whatever reason, I don't know. I have been wondering why I was like that at that time in my life. Was I programmed that way and then changed later in life as I became more self-sufficient, or was this part of public schooling and just what everyone did?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I rarely do this, but we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday, which was opening day. We waited in line outside for over an hour before getting into the theater and then waited another 30 minutes for the movie to start. Sam told me she had already seen it the night before. People started clapping when the movie came on. The last time I remember being in a theater when people did that was Star Wars. It was kind of funny.

I have to say that this is by far one of the best Harry Potter movies. It is PG and the only thing I would warn parents about is that since the characters are older, they do engage in a bit of kissing (snogging as they call it). They did an EXCELLENT job on the movie and choose the scenes that made for the best movie. It is a very good book too, so in all, I feel that it is better than some of the others.

Banana the Rooster
We bought 9 chickens, one died a few days after we got it (too bad there is not a guarantee on chickens), and now we have 8. We started noticing right off that one chicken was not like the others. This chicken acted as though it needed to protect all the others when we come out to feed them, change their water, and muck out the poop. It would run up in front of the other chickens and stand between us and them or try to gather them all together as a pack.

After a while, we realized that this chicken, Banana by name, is in fact a rooster. As chicks you can't really tell them apart, but we sure can now. He is one proud fella. It is kind of fun to hear him crow in the morning. The kids are hoping to have some chicks born, so we will allow a few of them to stay on their eggs after we get them established at laying.

April Showers? or Just Windy?

April Showers Anyone?

Where are the April Showers? We have either had snow or blasting wind that closes highways and rattles windows at night. I do not remember so much wind the last time we lived here. I know the weather patterns seem to have changed a little bit in the last few years...but this is ridiculous! I hope we get a few showers in to help keep the forest green over the summer. We saw a lot of smoke yesterday due to a forest fire.

Finding Joy!

It was one of my goals this year to focus on happiness and joy in life. I can say that I am happy, even through the trials and tribulations. I have learned, thanks to previous trials and tribulations, to be patient and realize that things could be a lot worse. Really, things are very good! After watching April General Conference, I felt that despite our economic hardships, everything else is really, REALLY GOOD!

We are very busy in our new home with getting the land "fire safe". The previous occupants let the back 3/4 acre become very overgrown. We have worked on the weeds, but the wind keeps blowing our neatly piled weeds around. We have tried to burn the weeds but cannot because of high winds, I had to get a burn permit and I call every day to see if we can burn. So, we stopped working on that for now and pray that the winds will cease long enough for us to get the weeds gone!

The flower bed is planted with seeds and Marly diligently waters it every day. Our eight chicks have more than doubled in size and are now living in their remodeled coop. We do not let them outside much yet because we are afraid they will blow away! They are not big enough to handle the wind yet.

We found a local homeschool group...there are five other homeschool families in our ward alone. We have been excited to have so many "close by"...meaning within 20 minutes drive. LOL! There are TONS of teens here. There are 40 young women and about 15 young men in our ward. They have all welcomed Marly and Chris with open arms and invited them to lots of things already. The boys are particularly happy to have another boy so they are not so outnumbered.

I hope to get some more pics up soon. I have just been so busy...

2009 - Week 5 - This Week in Homeschooling

In addition to Marly and Chris's babysitting job, Chris has been sick with a sinus infection this week. The level of his education was greatly effected this week and we hope he will get better soon!

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lesson 12 - We spent the entire week on the Atonement.
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
• Read Aloud Book - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and my kids THINK they have chores)
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - winsome, meager, haughty, foster
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Respiratory System - Usborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 358-359, How the Body Works pg. 69-77, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 218-23 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed diagrams are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. Chris was too sick to do much else.
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 9-11
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Unit 2 Test, online math drills
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-18, Molly Moon Stops the World, Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure, The Hounds of the Baskerville's (1st half)
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-38 thru 1-39 (1st half)
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (still working on this one), The Love Dare (a 40 day challenge so I'll be reading this one every day for awhile - see this movie "Fireproof"), Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning (studying up on the levels of Scholar Phase to present to the family next week)
  
• Projects - cleaning and perfecting my bread making skills. See my favorite recipe at The Solar Cook.
  

2009 - Week 4 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week my children began a babysitting job for a sister in our ward who had a very preemie baby (1 lb. 10ozs.) I am happy for the experience my children are receiving, but greatly saddened by the situation of this dear friend and her family.

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 10-11 (spent 3 days on lesson 11)
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - dilate, doleful, conciliatory, insolvent, fawn
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Nervous System - Useborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 364-367, How the Body Works pg. 115-121, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 24 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed pictures are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. We were supposed to attend a hike at the Arboretum, but we had car trouble. :-(
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 5-8
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 14, Review for Unit 2 Test, online math drills (see below)
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-17, Princess Academy, The Seventh Tower, Book of a Thousand Days, Johnathan Livingston Seagull
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-35 thru 1-37, finished Dragon Rider, started The Silver Chair.
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - How to Be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book by John Bytheway, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (quite an eyeopener - I recommend this book as a MUST READ!)
• Projects - (1)Drupal theming - see batchelorfamily.org where I converted the theme from this blog to my Drupal website. I know I'm the only excited about it, but that's OK. :-) (2) Prepared our taxes!
  

Free Online Math Drills!
I hate wasting paper on printing math drills. Math-U-See has free online math drills for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The website allows the student to drill on specific facts (multiply by 7's) or select a mixture of practice questions. I do not keep grades for drills, only for tests because we focus on mastery, so for me this works out perfectly. It has a timed factor that I love, it tells the student how fast they accomplished the drill, but it does not have a countdown visible to the student. I like this because some students have difficulty with "test anxiety".

2009 - Week 2 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week we had a lot going on, but we still managed to do all this:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 5-6
• Classes/Clubs Attended: Principles of Leadership, Loom Knitting
  
• Literature Focus - Fantasy - Leven Thumps series
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - gregarious, incredulous, panorama
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries - Winston Grammar
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Skeleton
• P.E. - Rollerblading & scooter riding at park day, Wii Tennis and Bowling
  
• Math
• Marly: (We are waiting for the next workbook to arrive)
  
• Chris: Still working on learning area of different shapes - we may go back and review to help him in this area.
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, Star Wars: Secrets of the Jedi, Pirate Curse: The Wave Walkers. (This child can READ! I wish I had time to read as many books as she does.)
  
• Chris: Story of the World, Vol. 1-32 "Ancient China" & 1-33 "Confucius", Dragon Rider
  
• Individual Studies
• Marly: Loom Knitting
  
• Chris: Linux, setting up wireless connections, installing windows web browser on a Nintendo DS, networks,
  
• Mom School: Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Teachings of the Prophets: Joseph Smith lessons 24 & 25
  

2008 in Review

I copied this from another friend. She always has great ideas on her blog.

The Year in Review Questionnaire:

A Great Adventure - This year I am the president of not one, but TWO homeschool groups. I'm not sure why I did that. It has been a lesson learned in leadership and taking on too many things. Not too long after I took on the 2nd group, I became Relief Society secretary and started a job. *sigh* So, check out my attempts at organizing the homeschooling community in Arizona and the Southeast Valley. Here is a picture of us at one of the fieldtrips I organized.

A Happy Event - Christian turned 12 and became a deacon this year. He passed the sacrament for the first time and spoke in church for the first time on the same day. He loves serving in the church by collecting Fast Offerings (while the other boys groan) and serving in his scout troop.

A Sad Event - The day Sam moved out "officially" to live with her dad the majority of the time. The house is a little less full and happy without her.


Looking Forward To - The end of court...I won't go into it here...but I can't wait for all this mess to be over.

Something for the Books - This year we somehow ended up in the local paper. I responded to a request for reasons why people homeschool and before I know it we are being featured in the article and a photographer is sent out to photograph us homeschooling. This was a little difficult because we are not very exciting when we homeschool. LOL! We mostly read and focus on individual needs and lessons. Here is the article we were in.


Don't Remind Me! - I'm so sick of people saying they like my current hair style. I really hate it! I cannot identify myself as a short-haired person. I look too much like a man. I need my long hair back!


New Interest or Hobby - (Foreign language alert!) This year I took some classes in CSS and learned PHP. I started some websites using Drupal. See azldshsa.org and thesolarcook.com.

Car Story - We survived teaching Sam how to drive! Both the van and truck are still in one piece. No damages have been reported. All pedestrians are still alive, although they may be running for their lives still. My hair is a little grayer and my nails are growing back, although the grip marks can still be seen in the seat I was sitting in. :-)

Kid Story - Chickens! We raised chickens this year and then the kids sold them for a profit. Our neighbors were not happy about the noise. Now the kids want to raise rabbits. We loved our chickens and will miss the eggs, but not the poop!


Miracle - It is a huge miracle that we still have a job! With all the layoffs in the construction market, Mike is currently still employed at TaylorMorrison Homes. We'll see if that lasts, but we are extremely grateful to our Father in Heaven for allowing Mike to still have a job.

Birthday's

This is our BUSY time of year with Birthday's. All our children are another year older!

Sam is 17 and a beauty! Her personality is so fun and outgoing. We love and miss her very much since she is staying mostly with her dad right now. We celebrated her birthday early with a family party and then I took her shopping, her favorite pastime, for a new outfit.

Marly is now 14 and such a sweet girl! We enjoy her calm and pleasant nature. She is so helpful around the house and learning quite a few homemaking skills - cooking, crocheting, cleaning - and she takes care of the garden and the chickens. We celebrated her birthday with a family bowling outing, which is how she wanted to spend her birthday.


Chris is now a 12 year old Deacon! He was recently ordained in the Aaronic Priesthood. He passed the sacrament and talked in church for the first time...on the same day! Boy, they don't waste much time in our ward. He is a creative boy who enjoys making new projects - wood swords, catapults, crossbows - and he makes up his own games. Chris had a few friends spend the night for his birthday party.

Spring is for Science!

While most of the country is still pretty cold, we have had 80 degree temperatures this week. We have taken advantage of this fantastic weather and been enjoying the great outdoors. The bikes are getting used frequently, the dog is ecstatic getting so many walks, and the windows are thrown open to receive the gentle breeze. I love this time of year and hope the desert heat stays away for quite a while. My Fibromyalgia pain decreases during this time as the cold leaves. My joints feel better already!

Marly's Project

Last year we started using the Square Foot Garden method. We were successful with our radishes and strawberries, but not our carrots or lettuce. We are starting again. Marly has chosen this as her project. She tenderly cares for the boxes we made last year and we are clearly another section for two more 4' x 4' boxes. She researched and found planting guides for our area and has created a plan for the planting seasons this year.

Chris's Project

Chris has been progressively working on learning about electricity. Last year he made a complete circuit and this year he has been building several types of circuits using an Electronics Snap Kit. We purchased a kit called Crystal Radio, but have been unable to get it to work well (I do not recommend this kit). His project of game programming and HTML is still ongoing.

Sam's Project

Our stake is preparing for a Pioneer Trek. Sam is making most of her own clothing for this event that will take place this summer. We are starting with her apron. She has been on a trek previously and is very sure about what she wants this time. I'm happy to see her geared up to be an experienced trekker!

Homeschooling 4 - 5 Kids

Adventures in Homeschooling! My sister-in-law, who also homeschools, is on mandatory bed rest for a few weeks. She is pregnant and there is a hole in the placenta. They lost a baby in August 2007 also. So, she is an at-risk pregnancy in a couple ways right now. I offered to take her kids for the next few weeks to homeschool along with my own. Sam was home because she had her wisdom teeth out (poor baby!) and she schooled right along with us, working on an online world history class and studying for her other classes.

It is easier than I though it would be. I feel comfortable enough in educating the kids that it was easy to find things for everyone to work on and they have a great time!

I used to stress myself out with complicated curriculum, both public online school and curriculum I purchased. Now I've worked to simplify our education by focusing on a good math program, classic reading materials, and the interests of the children in science, history, and PE. My children are becoming more focused on their own education and actually OWNING it, rather than doing it because they were told to. They chose their own reading materials from the classics list and from the racks at the local library. I have some unit studies and lapbooking materials for times when they just need a creative outlet to show what they are learning.

Here are what we are educating our children with right now:

• Teaching Textbooks - Awesome math program!
• Classics list #1 - Thomas Jefferson Education List
  
• Classics list #2 - 1,000 Good Books List (by grades)
  
• Old Testament Lapbook - (history)
  
• Book of Mormon Lapbook
  
• Discover the Scriptures - Book of Mormon & Life of Thomas S. Monson
  
• Science Kits - Electronics Snap Kit, Froguts, Astronomy for Kids, and the Science Channel.
• Kid's personal projects - Chris is working on a website and Gamemaker. Marly is working on knitting, cooking, and crocheting. Sam is sewing her clothes for an upcoming Pioneer Trek reenactment.