Time to breathe!

Whew! Its been a whirlwind during these past, several weeks.

Packing, schooling, change of address emails/phone calls/paperwork, more packing, moving, unpacking, more schooling, a little bit of decorating, more unpacking, even more schooling and getting ready for our homestudy classes. Yowza! We've been working hard.

I've barely had time to catch my breath...until now. So, while we're breathing and decompressing (and still unpacking), I thought I'd share a few things that have made me say "Ahh!" during these recent days:

• The two skylights and plentiful, natural light in our new apartment.
• The QUIET in our new apartment!
• Spending time with our homeschool friends.
• Knowing that our son LOVES his new, twice-a-month, co-op group and his once-a-month, outdoor wilderness classes.
• Knowing that our son also loves being in Civil Air Patrol! What??? You're the parent of a 12-18 year old son or daughter who may be interested in the Air Force & you've NEVER heard of Civil Air Patrol?????  www.gocivilairpatrol.com
• A few hours of downtime at Panera (free Wi-Fi!) + my Basic Airman Cadet at his weekly Civil Air Patrol meeting =  dinner treat for this mama and a new, blog post! 
• Racking up extra homeschool hours during the summer...another vacation to Florida at the end of this month (that also deserves a woo-hoo!).
• Knowing that an amazing, little girl will someday (hopefully soon) come home & enjoy the new room and apartment that we're getting ready for her! 

These little things (and even bigger things) may not seem like a big deal to you... but to me, they're blissful moments and bring me peace.

A Commentary for a "Back to School World"

"It's that time of year!" Television, radio, internet, magazines, newspapers, stores, signs everywhere are announcing it's Back to School Time!

Wow! I didn't realize how much our society revolves around the traditional school year until we stepped away from regular school. On every channel, I see "Back to School Sale" commercials for clothes, shoes, electronics and school supplies.. At the grocery store, I glance at magazines that share their "School Night Dinner Recipes" and "Tips for Getting Your Kids Ready for School". I've even seen the pictures and video clips of parents who are dancing, singing and acting like they won the lottery because they're kids are finally going back to school! Woo-hoo!! Everyone is so happy!!!

As happy as parents are that their kids are finally going back to school, I wonder if they've forgotten the frustrations, problems and even heartaches from the months of the previous school year. Common Core (There! I said it!). Increasing hours of homework. Cookie cutter learning. Stress from over-testing. Teachers who are overwhelmed with overcrowded classrooms. Budget cuts in the arts. Bullying. Cyberbullying. Promiscuity. School Violence. 

Let's talk about bullying for a moment. I just read an article,"Safety Net" by Lambeth Hochwald, in the September issue of Family Circle. In her article, Ms. Hochwald shared that "up to one in three kids report being victimized at school" and "49% of students between grades 4 and 12 say they've been targeted at least once in the past month". 

Being the new kid in elementary, middle and high school (we moved around a lot), I was often bullied. Our son was bullied in school, as were some of his friends. Statistics don't lie, bullying has become more rampant than ever. Not only is bullying on the rise, but it's getting worst in ways we never could have never imagined! Cyberbullying that is 24/7. Cruel videos of kids who are being victimized floating around the Internet. Apps and websites that are virtual playgrounds for kids to bully each other in anonymity. More news of kids retaliating with unspeakable violence. Did we ever think that bullying could be taken to these new, scary levels?

In August and September, we try not to think about these things. Parents are optimistic and hopeful for a good year...but aren't we just sweeping these problems under the rug? Trying to focus on the happy, back to school season until these many issues start rearing their ugly heads. We'll keep sweeping until the lump under the rug gets bigger and bigger...and then we'll have to deal with it. Year after year. It just gets harder and harder. As a parent, you don't know what to do. 

In previous posts, I've mentioned that there are a lot of freedoms that go along with being a homeschool family. Freedom from scheduling vacations around the school year. Freedom in having your days be less stressful. Freedom in having your child's learning be a hands-on experience. Freedom in knowing your child is in a safe, learning environment. Freedom in teaching your child to learn in the way that is best suited for him or her.  What I know, as a homeschool parent, is there is a freedom in not being of the "Back to School World". Freedom is being blessed to be able to do what is best for your child and family.

I'm through with sweeping things under the rug. Our happiness is year round now....not just the first months of fall or first months of summer.. 

Moving and a reality check.

Packing! Ugh!!! You don't realize how much time, energy and stamina is required to pack all of your family's belongings until you actually pack up and move somewhere. As I've shared in my last post, we're beginning our homestudy to adopt a little girl from foster care. This means, not only do we have a boatload of paperwork, meetings and training to complete...but we also have to move out of our current two bedroom apartment to a three bedroom apartment in our development in the beginning of September. For all of you keeping track, we are: packing and moving to a bigger apartment, completing a homestudy through our county, preparing our family in learning about foster-adoption, getting our home ready for a little girl and homeschooling. My poor iPhone is pinging every five minutes with reminders and deadlines!

Right now in our homestudy, my husband and I have to list all of the places we've lived in, for past 26 years, as part of a background clearance check. We also did this 13 years ago for our son's homestudy.  For those of you who haven't moved around that much, this listing every place you've lived may not seem like a daunting task. However, my husband and I moved around a lot as kids / teens. He and I met in college in North Carolina, became engaged, moved to Florida for graduate school and got married....and moved around some more...and more. In the past 26 years, I've lived in 13 different places and not including the apartment we're moving into next month. On paper, this was an eye opener for me. That may not sound like many places, especially to all those wonderful men and women in the military, who move around so much with their families! If you do the math (and I'm a homeschool mom so I try to make everything a teachable moment), the average is moving every two years! That actually hasn't been the case, as we lived in our last home in Pennsylvania for almost nine years.

We moved up to New York more than two years ago for my husband's work and it was one of the best decisions we ever made.  Don't get me wrong, moving is always a challenge! However, when we think of moving, we usually think of it being as something that will eventually bring a positive or good change in our lives, don't we? Whether we move for our education, careers or home life....we tend to equate moving as a hopeful opportunity for growth. Change is a good thing and in just about every situation in our lives, change = growth. In many instances, that change will require us to move somewhere new.

Now, I want you to picture a scared child or teenager who is in foster care. She has been taken away from her birth family (for whatever reason) and she is very traumatized. She has been placed in a foster home and everything is unfamiliar to her. The past grownups in her life have let her down and she is just trying to keep up with all of the changes and decisions that the new grownups are making for her. She may have siblings or relatives that she wants to see, but maybe the new grownups can only let her see them once in a while. Just when she starts to get used to things in this foster home, the new grownups come back and make her move to another one...and another one. Every few years? Try every few months! She is very scared, mad, hurt and frustrated. She is frustrated because the new grown ups keep moving her around. They make her put everything she has into one bag or suitcase and she takes it every time they move her. The new grownups tell her she can't go home, they're trying to find her a new forever home and this is why they keep moving her around so much. The thing about this little girl...is that she won't give up. The children in foster care? They never give up. They are braver than all of us. They all hope someday for a forever home. And they don't give up.

If we never became a homeschool family, we would have never made the realization that we were blessed enough to adopt a child from foster care. We would have just kept living our lives, focused on regular school and our lives built around a regular school schedule. When I think of our moving into a bigger apartment and all of the positive moves that we've made in our lives, I now think of the moves that children in foster care must make every day. Whenever our little girl finally moves home with us, we have a lot of healing that we need to give to her. I always say that we're blessed beyond measure...and we are....

As a homeschool family, the most important lesson we've learned is not from a book, worksheet or curriculum. We've learned this lesson from God. To always have hope and faith in Him and to never give up. Not only are we learning it from the Lord, but somewhere out there, a little girl is also teaching this very lesson to us.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Long time, no blog!

Happy Summer!  I apologize to the handful of folks who actually read my blog...its been a hectic summer!  We're busy with new adventures, big plans and a lot of good things in store. And my fractured foot last month (blah)!

Here's what we've been up to-

• I fractured my foot at the beginning of June. How did I do this? Rock climbing? Training for a mud run? Nope! I was walking down our stairs and missed a step! D'oh! I had to hobble around town in a big, stinky orthopedic boot for four weeks! On July 3rd, I was given the all-clear and now the boot is stinking up our laundry room.
• During that time,  we took an extended break from schooling. Our son made a bet with me that I couldn't go one day without talking about anything related to homeschool. I lost at the end of that first day. Did he really think I wouldn't tell him about the email I received announcing the huge sale on frog dissection kits?
• We resumed homeschooling at the beginning of this month and began our "year round homeschool schedule" (cue dark, foreboding music).  Its actually going quite well and the transition has been a good one. Our homeschool motto "Learning never stops!" is received with less eye-rolling when I remind our son of the following equation. One hot, boring day + a few hours of homeschool = EXTENDED FALL OR WINTER VACATION (and a couple of extra days off every month). Woo-hoo!
• That being said, I'm letting our son take the lead in what he wants to learn this summer. We're still covering the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic. However, we're letting him study his interests a little more in depth. Things like earth and life science, famous war battles, outdoor survival skills, computer technology....and how to plan a future career as a Minecraft Designer...or Minecraft Player...or The Next Stampylonghead.
• We're spending some awesome quality time with homeschool friends and new friends from church. We've learned there is a HUGE difference between "quantity socialization time" versus "quality friend time". I'm just sayin'!
• I'm getting ready for our son and my husband's birthday on July 27th. Yup...they have the same birthday! I tend to go a little batty this time of year in planning their big day!

Finally.....drum roll, please! Brrrruummmm.....................

We are thrilled to announce that we are beginning the homestudy process to adopt our second child! After consideration, family discussion and prayer, we agree that we are so blessed to be able to start another adoption journey! We're starting our homestudy classes and training (yes, lots of homework for this mom and dad) in September.  We hope to be done with our homestudy in mid-November.  We hope to adopt a little girl sometime next year.

Blessed beyond measure!!!

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7:7-8

Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone!  :)

Thanksgiving in June

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 107:1 (NIV)

We have a lot to be thankful for....and we don't want to wait until November to give our thanks. Our family likes to give thanks as much as possible. Although this year was challenging, it was also amazing!

So here is our Top 10 List of why we're SO thankful for homeschooling-

1. We grew closer to God and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Through homeschooling, we were able to have our "school days" anchored in Scripture and began to study His Word more in depth. We hope to nurture and continue to grow in this....for our family learned that spirituality is based on a relationship not a religion.
2. We were able to weather the storms together as a family. This academic year came with medical trials for our son. Thanks to homeschooling, he not only survived, he thrived! He didn't miss a beat, homeschooling gave us much flexibility with our schedule and we're so thankful that he is feeling much better!
3. This academic year also came with a lot of academic challenges for our son, but he CONQUERED them! During his "regular school years", our son felt different and behind. We were told that the way he learned was flawed. He worked hard, but the distractions & pace were overwhelming for him. Then came the " new standards" and the frustration exponentially increased. When we started to homeschool, the pace and learning focused entirely on him. He is reading at grade level! Do you know how many teachers said that could never happen?  "Jesus looked at them and said 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" Matthew 19:26 NIV.
4. As a result of going at his own pace, he became more interested in learning...because he could finally understand in his own time. Decreased Pressure = Increased Learning.
5. Sleeping in! 'Nuff said! 
6. This year, we traveled more and went on some AWESOME field trips! A few days, homeschool became museum-school, aquarium-school, Everglades - school  and my favorite... beach-school !!!!
7. Technology. Our son learned that he is a natural in programming (Hello, online JAVA classes!), developing apps and much more! 
8. Our AWESOME homeschool friends! They have been such a blessing and we're so thankful for the friendship, fellowship and guidance they have given us this year. 
9. Our son overcame his fear & frustration of word problems! Woo-hoo!!!
10. What lies ahead for next homeschool year? More knowledge, creativity and love...and some pretty big surprises...stay tuned for more! 

Time to land the helicopter!

We're back! We've traveled three times during the month of May...also known as "Maycation" in our home. Two wonderful family visits and one fabulous vacation to Vermont. We had a blast and we're so thankful that we were able to take school with us!

Today, we start to finish our year-end assignments, projects, etc. For the next couple of weeks, we're wrapping things up. I was concerned that our son was going to give me a hard time and push back with "Summeritis". You know, that lovely syndrome when kids "check out for the last month" until the end of the school year. It happens to our son (and millions of other kids) every year, usually around the end of May. Anyway, our son needs to finish his final copy of a story (language arts project) that he has been working on for a few weeks. I'm also trying to foster some independence in his schoolwork. Leaving the room for a while, letting him figure things out and asking me for help only when he absolutely needs it. So, I'm landing my "chopper" as a Helicopter Mom! Today, I asked him to sit at his laptop, with his written notes, and type his final copy of his report. Then I left the room for a while....

Would you believe that was more than an hour ago and he is actually enjoying it?!?!  His typing skills are pretty decent now, thanks to an online typing course. The best thing about his finishing this  story? His creative juices are flowing! Just from the little bit that he has shared with me, his story has action, suspense and it's so funny. I can't wait to read it, because he has become quite the writer! We always knew he loved sharing stories. He has the gift of gab and telling stories. Never in a million years would I have thought that he would love to write stories, too!

This is something that I can nurture as a homeschool mom. His new found-love of writing...OK, typing stories! Giving him the confidence to try new things and do them on his own and develop his own style of writing. So, my helicopter is landing...and the laptop is going into overtime!

The Journey of a Seaheart

This is a drift seed (also known as a sea bean). We found it last week during our family vacation to Boynton Beach, Florida- where we visited my husband's parents. In addition to seeing family, we were blessed enough to spend some AWESOME time at Boynton Beach. My husband and son found this beautiful Seaheart Sea Bean during a walk along the shore. It probably has an amazing story, of course, we turned it into a hands-on, learning experience for our family (Much to our son's dismay, our new motto is "Learning never stops!").

We believe this sea bean is an Entada gigas or a Seaheart Sea Bean. and originates from the Amazon Jungle. The Entada giga vines will curl around trees that extend over the Amazon River. The sea beans, that are inside the pod (on the vine), will fall into the river. The seeds will separate from their pods, and eventually, will make their way the ocean.  The currents of the ocean will take these mahogany-colored beans on long journeys to far-away lands.  The waves of the ocean will also polish the thick, dark skin of the Seaheart. A Seaheart can remain in the ocean for many months, even years until it finds it way to shore.

When I was 10-15 years old, I spent my summers in South Florida.  I often visited the beach and I remember finding these sea beans along the shore.  I loved hearing stories of how sailors thought Seahearts were good luck, because of their thick skin and their ability to withstand long journeys in the ocean. I even remember a story that Christopher Columbus was inspired by a Seaheart to sail west in search of new lands! I shared all of these stories and legends of the Seaheart with my husband and son, who were eager to hear about our new treasure from the beach. Of course....the first thing I thought of, as a new homeschool mom, when they found our Seaheart? What a fantastic Unit Study this will be when we get home!

In many ways, our journey in life is like the journey of a Seaheart. We start out in one land, surrounded by the things we know and encompassed by a protective "pod". Then, we are trusted by God, to take a journey in unknown waters to faraway lands. Just like the Seaheart, we can buoyant and resilient, during our travels through the rough waters of life and we can do this through faith and strength. To someone else walking along the beach, this may look like something ordinary that washed up on the shore.  However, I think its a reminder from God...that this ordinary seed was transformed, by the ocean, to turn into something pretty special. If we continue to trust in Him, the journey will be just as amazing as the destination.....and we will become polished by Him, just like the Seaheart.