GIVE THANKS!

Oh what a fun time we're having...focusing on History, Healthy Eating, and the Digestive System!  Sounds like a some Thanksgiving Lessons to ME.  We've made apple butter, some sweets, butter, flat bread (well thats what it turned into when our yeast bread didn't rise...we'll try again).  We watched Super Size ME! YIKES!  But you get the picture, I absolutely LOVED it when on Sunday at church...when I asked all the kiddos what Thanksgiving is about...My boy was the first to say it was about GIVING THANKS to God!  Love it!  So much...to squeeze in this week and some many great areas that these lessons lead us in to.  Somehow while I know my boys are learning so much, I feel like November and December are a bit of a break?  Not that we're slacking but there is just so much FUN, so many things that just get to the heart of who we are as a family that it's just second nature...this the way it should be. 

So I'll try and be back soon with pictures!!! Need to fill in the blanks of our recent "getaway/ florida learning adventure/family wedding! 

Love & Prayers, Heather

LIFE!!! and my ramblings!

        So here i am again...haven't posted in AGES, trying to figure out where to even start!  Where have we been, what have we studied?   Hmmm...I guess I'll get to that list in a bit! And where are those pictures? They'll turn up, I'm sure! We have been busy with NO end in site!  Busy in my mind at least!  When I really think about it... life is probably not quite as crazy as I make it out to be!  I think it's really more of the "ME" twist i put into my life.  You see, I'm self diagnosed with JUNE CLEAVER SYNDROME!  (ie...my vintage pics)  I desire/dream/expect my life to run just as seamlessly as that of The Cleaver's.  Smiling faces (always), clean home, well dressed, nicely groomed, good mannered, dinner on the table, friendly, and fun loving!  Ummm, high expectations?  I ONLY want a clean house, well organized, nicely decorated, everything "just so", I want 2 boys well mannered, well rounded, well educated, I want a happy, healthy hubby.  I want to be there for my friends and family.  Oh and what I want for myself...yeah well, that could go on for a bit!  I want a family who happily serves the Lord, gives to others and smiles and never pitches fits (well at least not in public)!!! 

        So what do think?  Ummm, some things seem to negate others quite a bit these days!  Yeah, so we get up in the morning, I shower get dressed and start the first load of laundry.  The kitchen sink is sparkling at this point (since I was up at 1a.m. making sure of that) but then comes that first bowl of cereal.  Now its time to wipe the counters, fold up blankets from last nights lounging and snuggling and start school! So as Big boy and i work on school what is a 4 year old to do...even if he begins working on preschool stuff it most likely turns to toys before to long.  Before we know it, it's lunchtime and before we know it dinner, laundry folded, toys put away, floors vacuumed and mopped, school neatly put away, the next day planned and ready to go!!! Oh yeah and maybe, it isn't a day of school at home maybe we're heading out on a field trip, well I can almost always promise the beds are made! Everything else will have to wait!  So yeah, have I mentioned that my husband and I lead our elementary age Sunday school and that we are in the midst of  painting and decorating the room.  Oh and that  on Wednesday night bible study, childcare is provided (me)! Oh and I "kinda" have a small side business (or 2)!? And Sunday afternoons, after church are spent at my mom and dads, having picnics in the backyard, hanging out and Sunday dinner.  And then we usually make it to Hubby's parents if not every week, every other.  Yes and we love our friends to and love spending time with them!!!  So MUCH to do so little time! 
      So when I mention MY twist that I put on life...I am blessed to be bit creative, my brain is always coming up with cute ideas, (how to make a party more perfect, grow our church, gift ideas and more)!  I recently discovered, that more times than not I'm not directly asked to help with a certain task here or there, I volunteer to help because...I HAVE AN IDEA!  There are times when I wish I could just keep my big mouth shut, BUT, these are gifts (God given, I believe) and they are meant to be shared, right? 
      Right...and then there is LIFE, and Priorities and what needs to be done first and what can wait and what will I SETTLE with?  I have found that there are areas lately where i have settled ( the painting I desperately want to do at home, dinner on the table nightly) but still runs through my mind and perhaps/maybe (I think) contributes to my overall sense of stress...because... You see, June simply would not have settled on either of these! YIKES, are you now getting a view of my insanity...I know I'm not alone, I know there are more JCS sufferers. 
      Oh so, just for the fun of it lets add in The Parman School for Boys...yep, endless hours of research, planning and prep!  What will work best for my Right Brained big boy, He's so creative, and Right it's not even funny!  and little brother wants nothing more than to be just like him.  NO PROBLEM,  we teach with creativity then, yeah with "obsessive, creative mom" turning a lapbooks into mini scrapbooks.  I'm certain, the person who was clever enough to come up with the whole lapbook concept, was much like me.  Lacking time to craft her family scrapbooks, she put that creative energy into a school projects because "kids are only little once"!  Bottom line the pictures (memory cards) will still be there when, we have time. 
     PRIORITIES friends, priorities!  Serving my boys and homeschooling is a BIG one for me right now.  I feel called to do so, I know that there is no one who could do it with more passion and love than me.  So despite the lists in my head (of which there are many)  I choose to make a daily attempt to DO WHAT I CAN and allow God to handle the rest. So now that I've rambled on, and everyone knows my insanity...Please make me feel better and tell me I'm not alone! 

:) GEEZ, I don't even know that this flows or makes sense! Oh well...some how I'm guessing all the randomness might just provide that additional glimpse into the mind of us CRAZY women, trying desperately do it all as EVERYTHING jumbles through our minds! YIKES!

;) The perfectionist in me is screaming, "DELETE!"...  The girl wanting to get it all done (including posting more than monthly) says, "It'll do...You, spent way to much time finding those cute pics. to do any such thing!"

Love & Prayers, ME

The PARMAN School for Boys "virtual tour"!

 I love peeking into the other homeschool "classrooms" all over the web! What fun it is to see what everyone else has done...So heres a peek at how we've re-organized our home to include school too.

Non-Fiction ...Who needs a coat closet in Florida?



Grandmas old vanity now serves as one of our
FAVORITE work zones! The drawers are filled
with paper, crayons, markers and more...



Geez...everything is here, games,puzzles,

reference books, math manipulatives,

science stuff, extra supplies, lap book

materials, and more...I'm sure!

Oh and of course the ever LOVED

dining room table/work zone!



More...

So, of course there's more...more little corners of  "Our World", like the armoir in Chase room that also serves as a quite reading nook.  The 3 of us squeezed in just the other day, for Chase to read to us by flashlight in the middle of the day!  Or maybe the "other" bookshelves in the boys rooms.  And lets not forget the fort atop the swing set, another favorite reading spot, or how about the backyard all together, we've watched many a spider, grass hopper, mantis and more.  The World is truely our schoolhouse. 

Thank you God, for giving us so many beautiful, wonderful, exciting and mysterious things to explore!







Ohhhh....What have we been doin'?

     Hmmmm, what if I said Nothin'!!! Yes, there is a piece of me that wishes that were the case...lying on a beach in the bahamas, kicking back in the Keys, a drive up to where the leaves are changing? Well, even then the "nothin'" part would most likely not be the case because any such excursion would very likey entail a complete unit study and lots of fieldtrip exploration! Oh, but a girl can dream, right?  But now back to reality, Hubby has been working TONS of extra hours...Seriously, like 3 or 4 days off this month!  So in turn, this somehow equates to extra hours for Mom too!  And here we are almost done with month 2 of our journey, I think this being my first year homeschooling this is probably that time period for Mom that one begins to question their own sanity and feels a bit overwhelmed?!?  At least this is where I've been led with the coinciding extra work hours!
    So HONESTY time, I did take 1 day off, after a short morning of reading and headed for the BEACH, and a 2nd day to whip the house in order.   Did that sound like a confession?  So when I say a "day off" most of my friends (non-homeschooling) may be thinking..."oh, how nice for you."  where as another homeschooling mom is more likely to be thinking..."what did you learn about at the beach?", "what lessons were instilled during bedroom organization 101?"  You see I truely, truely believe that once one has taken the first step to even consider homeschooling, one sees that we are surrounded by learning, that learning is everywhere and a new perspective on life is therefore born!  So my "day off" meant that we just didn't do our usual load of sit down math, our writing may have seem nonexistant to some, since there is no current proof of it...as it washed away with the waves.  :)
     OOPS, forgot one, The Parman School for Boys was closed on September 24th in celebration of REEF!

Yay, he's a big 4 year old now!  We camped in Nana and PopPops back yard, and played on Reefs new water slide, Thanks to Nana, PopPop, Uncle Andre' and Aubrey.  Memories!  His birthday celebration lasted throughout the weekend and through Monday with more "party time" with Grandma and Grandpa, Reef is now decked out as ninja on his Batman Scooter, Good Job Grandma!   God Bless our sweet boy Reef he is a joyful, crazy boy and a true Blessing!

     So what else has been going on around here?  Math in all different forms (dice,Legos, cards, on the sliding glass doors, abacus, $, games, and yes, worksheets too), Language arts (me reading, him reading, Reading EGGS, writing, spelling, games and more), Science (experiments and research, animals, insects,weather and more), Social Studies ( history, maps, globes and more), Computers, ART, PE, and Music in the form of worship and heavy metal (my boys top 2 choices)!!!  So just incase you happen to be checking in on me...I promise LOTS of Learning is taking place. 

The Boys and their VENUS FLY TRAP!

Orlando Science Center

Back to Orlando! This time just me and my boy Chase! Daddy and Reef had a day to play!

shhhh...the rest of the boys and girls in Brevard County had the day off for "teacher in service", while Chase and I headed over for another homeschool class! Forces of nature, 3 science experiments a 'Cinedome' movie and plenty of play and exploration! Do I dare try to list all everything we "touched on" while there? Naaaaa...trust me not your average 2nd grade science class! Yeah, We Rock! Wish you did too! LOL :)

Orange County Regional History Center

Weather Watchers! Downtown Orlando, Thanks to my dear friend Shelly, I actually did know this place existed! She was married here, in the old courtroom. This is one of the original Orlando municipal buildings and now serves as the History Center, it is part of the Smithsonian museum organization and is well worth a visit! Did I mention its also right next door to the downtown Orlando Public Library? Loved it! We did our "Weather Watchers" class, and actually class put on by the center for homeschoolers :)! and then hit the Library for lunch and some book time! And let me tell you this is the place to be on Friday afternoons, the childrens library sets up Wii and X box and free play for all! Not your mothers library! (I say that quite literally, can't imagine this in my Moms library!) And then off too IKEA! Gotta squeeze in a little shoppy, shoppy, when your in the "BIG CITY"! Oh and if you haven't noticed we're not the type to just call it a day after that... Off to Uncle Long and Aunt Floras for some yummy chow! :) Yeah that was long day, I really don't think we left the house once the next day!

COOKIE MATH & Community Service

This is how we started our school day, a batch of oooey goooey oatmeal cookies! Yummy! No this wasn't breakfast, it was our contribution to the Faith City Church bake sale! Good stuff, However when explaining it the community service part of our lesson Chase seemed to question the legitamacy of it all, "what, earn money? Our church has GOD money" ! Yes, indeed dear Chase and we are believing for it! Amen. He's wise beyond his years and very in-touch. What a Blessing.

Oooops! Missed one! Well so much for trying to post in order, As i'm posting this I remembered another outing prior to this one that should be here! Hmmmm....Where are those picutres? Anywho! This was BUSY day! Radio Disney was at the Avenues! So we went out and played a few games with those guys, go balloons, colored, dug insects and animals out of a sandbox with the Brevard Zoo guys and Then headed to the Books-A-Million for some A.C.! So Reef played with Thomas & Friends, Chase and I got some reading in and then as you can see I parused a few books myself. Wait, Wait... We're not done yet! Then we checked out the "new" Hobby Lobby...(after all the hype and reading about it for years) I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I would be. I must say I was impressed with there variety of "science experiments" and stuff we could use here at The Parman School for BOYS! sooooo....then we went to lunch! Chik-Fillet, need i even say how i enjoy this place (well as fast food, boy food goes) clean atmosphere, friendly faces, contemporary christian music playing! And "REAL" chicken, Chase asked. Seriously! Oh and the give your unopened toy back and get an ice cream cone thing! LOVE IT!

Nope not done yet! We went to the Viera Wetlands to get a little science, florida wildlife in! Alligators, tons of birds! (where are those pics?) Afternoon thunderstorms heading in, yep now its time to head home.

Catching UP!

O.K. so here it goes! I'm going to play "Catch UP" and make an attempt to get as close to the current date of September 14th, as I can. So here's our recap of the past few weeks! OH what fun we've had...this is not to say we have not had our struggles! Struggles what struggles you may ask?..."mom, just give me 3 things today, okay?" yeah sure kid! or what about the gaze that reaches into infinity while he sits over a page of math for ummmm, 30 minutes that seem like 300! Or how about little brother climbing over us, "can I play JUMPSTART, can I play JUMPSTART, can I play JUMPSTART..."? !!! or what about the spilt bowl of cereal, on the ground while we are in the "final stretch" (and nope, I'm not so lucky to be the mom who can just let it sit 'til we're done) this minor spilled insisted on a full mop of the kitchen and dining rooms! Well you get the picture... But whats the BIG PICTURE...what made it into our forever FLOW of life that will make lifelong memories? I sure hope these days of ours, these beginning trips in our homeschool journey make the list. :)

GATOR WRESTLING 101

GATORLAND

What a day we had! Well what boy doesn't love reptiles! and with the added bonus of the Florida Resident special of $9.99 who could resist! Additionally if your studying Florida, Alligators are on the list...right? Not to mention that we had also come across information of Leusistic Alligators when doing some related search and Chase had become intrigued! And HAD to just had to...LOOK into the eyes of a blue eyed white alligator! Well, what do ya know? Thanks to "mom research" Gatorland (right in our backyard) has FOUR!!!

Leusistic Alligator : a blue eyed white alligator. Similiar to Albinoism it is caused my genetic mutation and is extremely rare.

ADVENTURE

Hello All! Well here we are a little more than a month into our ADVENTURE! ...and I wouldn't trade it for the world. As I imagined there has definately been a bit of an "adjustment period", How does one go not only from Summertime into the school year but also into our FIRST year Homeschooling? What does a 7 year old expect when Mom says, "We're doing school at home this year"? Just IMAGINE...visions of video games, cartoons, trips to the park, theme parks, swimming and the beach, and all the other FUN he was sure his little brother and I were up to...dance through his head! So yeah...some of his visions are mine too!!! But maybe the Surprise was that Reading, Math, Science, Geography, History, Handwriting, Journaling, and Living Books would also be a part of our days too :) ECLECTIC Style Baby! Toss some fieldtrips in, and we are well on our way to a fun filled journey of learning and exploration. My desire...My destination is to instill a TRUE LOVE for LEARNING& READING that lives in my Boys hearts forever! Day by day we'll make our way, finding what works for each of the boys, what makes them happy and peaks their interest. With the Love and Support of wonderful family and friend, what more could a girl ask for?