Back and Bigger than ever!

You may have noticed I dropped off the face of the blogging earth… my last post was over a year ago (terrible, I know). I have wanted to write but life seemed to speed by faster than I could catch my breath. Wondering what we’ve been up to? Let’s see if I can sum it up:

• I’ve gone from homeschooling 3 older kiddos, to teaching one K’er. How did this happen? Our oldest is doing independent study overseen by me and the two older boys are now attending our local middle school. That’s a bit of a long story that I will save for another post…
• Our fifth child was born on Easter Sunday, 2013. Meet Jack Alexander! He is named after my Grandfather and he is our 4th boy…

Jack @ 5 days old

• We survived our first deployment. My husband was in Afghanistan from November 2012 thru mid June 2013. Which means he missed most of the pregnancy and the birth. We were so thankful for Skype during these months, especially since we were able to Skype the delivery!
• I was finally able to breastfeed successfully after trying with my previous babies and giving up. I exclusively breastfed for the first 5 months before weaning for personal reasons (again, I will save that story for later). I am so glad I got to!
• My husband reenlisted for another 5 years while he was deployed.
• Joey, our now 5 year old, started Kindergarten at home. We also had his speech evaluated and he will be doing regular therapy, and we have a referral to an OT to check for possible SID.
• Joey also FINALLY is fully potty trained! We struggled for 2 years to get him to go #2 in the potty. We still aren’t sure WHY he had such a hard time, but I sure don’t miss cleaning messy underwear daily!
• I started working towards my Bachelor’s degree, but have had to step away to focus on my family.
• We have a new puppy! He is a 6 month old St. Bernard whom we named Gallifrey. Yes, it’s a reference to Doctor Who :)

While there' has been a lot going on in our family the past year or so, these are definitely the highlights. I will spend my next several posts catching up and sharing what’s been going on with each of us since I’ve been away in more detail. SO many changes! Stay tuned!

Blessings,

Cassie

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Where did the time go?

It's February and already I am falling behind on my blogging. For some reason, life has gotten even busier than I expected. A week ago, my husband left for training in the desert. That means I am the only one here to get things done. I haven't had any trouble staying busy. I've been doing a lot of work around the house organizing and redecorating. Our living space is the nicest we have ever had and I am really proud of how it's turning out. I have a few things still left to do, but once it's done I will be sure to post pictures. And of course, there's always school work to be done. By myself and the kids! We haven't had much of a routine lately, we mostly concentrate on taking care of our priorities on a day-to-day basis. Some days, our focus is on academics. Others are focuses on getting things done around the house or running errands. We have also had many days where we have spent time doing crafts or playing educational games. We even managed to have a PE day at a local play area with tons of bounce houses and obstacle courses for the kids to climb through. We all had a blast, and after four hours we were all exhausted! I even managed to help Joey get over his fear of bounce houses. The older boys enjoyed several rounds of laser tag. And I even managed to get someone on one adult time with a good friend.

I really just wanted to check in and let you all know that I have fallen off the face of the earth! I haven't forgotten to blog, I have just been so very busy. Tackling a honey do list when your honey isn't around isn't exactly easy. But it's nice to know that the list will be smaller by the time he gets home.

Blessings,

Cassie

Tackle it Tuesday–1.10.2012

I am starting a few new blog memes this year which I am really excited about! I am going to be approaching Tackle it Tuesday a little differently this year. On Tuesdays I will share a list of things I would like to tackle in the coming week as well as share how much I actually accomplished from the previous week’s list. I will also post a tip or share how I tackle specific things in my home and family. I hope you enjoy reading these posts and that they help, encourage, or inspire you to tackle something important to you!

Since I don’t have a last week’s list to work with, today I will share something else. If you have been reading my blog recently, you know I have recently returned to college to earn my BA in English, as a first step towards becoming a college professor. Over the holidays, I fell into the temptation of procrastinating many things, including my own schoolwork. This resulted in less time and effort put into my work, which I promised myself I wouldn’t let happen (hey, we are all human after all).

With the new year, I am determined to get back into my previous routine of finishing my work at least a few days before it’s due, taking notes on my required reading, and putting forth my best effort. That started this week (my school week runs Tuesday through Monday).

Last night I read half of my required chapter and copied and pasted the most important sections into a Word document. Most of my class texts are Ebooks, so this makes it a little easier on me in the note taking department. This morning, since I had to wake up before eight to babysit, I finished my chapter and my study notes before 10am. I also chose my topic for this week’s writing assignment, and completed some prewriting. The paper is due on Monday. This evening, before I go to sleep, I will write my required discussion responses, which are due Thursday, and study for my quiz which is due Sunday. I plan on having all of my classwork finished before the weekend so I can get started on next week’s work Saturday. This will get me back to my starting schedule of completing my work the weekend before class.

In addition to catching up on homework, these are some additional tasks I would like to tackle this week:

• Help the boys get their room organized (again, I just did this a month ago)
• Make a dent in Mt. Laundry
• Finish reading one book I’ve started on my Kindle
• Bathe the dog

I know that doesn’t seem to be a very ambitious list, but with homeschooling, babysitting four days a week, and this writing class, I don’t have much time for extra stuff this week.

Leave me a comment and tell me what YOU are tackling this week!

Blessings,

Cassie

Relationships Before Academics

I have previously referenced in my blog posts that the way we view (as well as the way we DO) homeschool has gone through some drastic changes over the past year or so. This is due largely to the change in homeschool requirements when we moved from Indiana to Washington. Washington law states that in order to be qualified to homeschool, the parent must either have a college degree, be overseen by a certified teacher, or posses proof they have completed a homeschool qualifying course.

Coming from a very loosely regulated state (and not yet having a college education) prompted me to find out what options were available to me to complete the required course. Most of what I found required attendance at several seminars and quite a sum of money. Then I found Barb Shelton's correspondence course, which was a perfect fit for me. I signed up, paid my enrollment fee, and purchased the required reading materials. This all started a couple of months before we moved, as it was my goal to be prepared legally once we arrived.

Of the many wonderful materials I studied, the writings of Marilyn Howshall are what stuck with me the most. Marilyn's writings are not based on a method, rather on a lifestyle that is at it's very root centered around the Bible. Although I was only required to read a few of her books, I ended up purchasing and devouring everything I could find written by her. When even that wasn't enough, I ended up finding a Yahoo group, as well as a Facebook group called Home Educated Mom. It was here that I got to know the heart of what makes a Lifestyle of Learning unique from every other method or approach I had ever encountered. This post will be my  first in a series discussing her writings, and the impact they have made on my life.

In her book The Two-Pronged Educational Myth, Marilyn talks about the way our society views education versus the biblical meaning of education. The world says that if we fill our children with subjects, topics, and information then they will be prepared for life. However, the Bible tells us that relationships are where we should begin. The heart-level attitudes, intentions, and motivations (what Marilyn refers to as AIM in many of her writings) of our children will show through in the fruit of their relationships. And where do our children learn to relate to others? From the relationships within the family! Marilyn says:

"A biblical model of education and discipleship combines principles of learning for a whole-life education. Children are instructed in right-relating practices within the family and with their own learning process."

Here's an eye opening thought - God actually cares deeply about the discipleship and education of our children! He doesn't just want our kids to get any old education, He wants them to have the BEST possible education - one that is biblical! Which means that discipleship and education (not meaning only academics) are equally important in shaping our children's lives.

Ok, you may be thinking, so what does that LOOK like? What makes this different than what I have already been doing? A biblical Lifestyle of Learning means that learning happens in the middle of everyday life. Our children will learn using specific tools (which I will discuss further in a future post) and specific principles will influence all activities and relationships. Our children will work toward developing individual scholarship. Take note: individual here means so much more than independent, the two words do not mean the same thing at all. One aspect of a Lifestyle of Learning I truly love is the use of living books and notebooking. We have used both of these wonderful learning tools in our home for years and enjoy them so much more than workbooks and textbooks, although these have their place as well. Individual discipleship between a parent, who's aim is to be led by the Spirit, and their child will result in relational fruit (as well as all-around happier household, in my own experience). The parents must be committed to following the leading of the Holy Spirit in all matters (educationally AND relationally) and show constant interest in those things their children are interested in. A true LOL (abbreviated from here on) means taking the time to observe, talk to, and encourage our children to help them develop their interests, as well as their gifts, bents, traits, and abilities. And last but not least, a LOL means putting relationships first, resulting in family purpose and meaningful relationships between all family members.

Ok, so what about content? Skills? Academics? I won't dig too deeply into these issues until later posts in this series, but instead I will leave you with this quote from the author:

"When the acquisition of knowledge serves character formation, skill will always be found to be a by-product of the process."

 A LOL requires much more of the parent, but not in the same ways many traditional methods and curriculum do. There are three major areas in which the parent must first begin to change before they can make changes within the family.

1. Devote time and energy to personal scholarship, as led by the Holy Spirit, in order to experience true growth and change,
2. Allow the Holy Spirit to to disciple you (through your conscience) in order to address your relationships biblically,
3. Embrace the process of bringing your children into right relating practices with you as the Lord leads you to do in your own relationships.

Although it's been nearly a year since these truths were opened up to me, this is still the point I am at in my own transformational change. I have made other small changes here and there, but my focus will remain in the area of relating with my own children until the Holy Spirit has told me to move forward from here. There are so many things wrong in this area, not just in my children, but in my own heart as well, and He is showing me more with each passing day. I am so thankful I have began this journey with the Lord and with my family and I know we will forever be changed. I am already seeing fruit, slowly but surely and I am beyond thankful I am no longer blind to these sinful behaviors. At first, my heart was very heavy seeing all that needed to be changed within my own heart, but as the Spirit is showing me the things that need to change, He is ever faithful to lead me through making those changes. It's a very slow, and sometimes painful, process, but the rewards are great. 

Next in this series, I will share with you a little more about the educational side of LOL. Until then, if you like what you have read, please visit Lifestyle of Learning Ministries here, where all of Marilyn's materials are available for purchase as ebooks. Also, make sure to check out LOLACHE (Lifestyle of Learning Association of Home Educators) online membership site and watch the videos there. 

Blessings,

Cassie

Love's the Word for 2012!

While reading through my long neglected feedly blog collection this afternoon, I noticed a lot of posts about the New Year and new beginnings, resolutions, and goals. But what really caught my eye were the bloggers who chose to dedicate the new year to a theme - a word. SO I have decided to ride on the coattails of those who have gone before me and share my theme this year with you...

This year, it's all about LOVE! What exactly does that mean to me? How does that fit into my day-to-day life? Here are some love related goals I have for the new year...

LOVING GOD

It is my deepest desire to know God more, worship Him more, and honor Him more, not just with my words and songs, but with my actions. The best way I can think of to show God how much I LOVE Him is to obey Him. I have always obeyed Him to the best of my ability in the little things, but it's time to get serious about my relationships. That starts with my relationship with my Creator and Savior, for without Him, I am nothing. This year, I am looking forward to listening for His leading in all areas of my life, finding opportunities to obey, and learning more about how to be truly LOVING from the One who first LOVED us.

LOVING MY HUSBAND

By following the example of Christ, I hope to become a more LOVING helpmeet to my husband. By putting God first (where He belongs), I will be able to show my husband more LOVE, respect, and honor. By putting God's will above my own, I will also be putting my husband and his needs above my own, because that's what His Word commands wives to do. Yes, I LOVE my husband, and he knows that, but I have plenty of room for improvement as a wife and a best friend.

LOVING MY CHILDREN

I have already experienced some major changes and breakthroughs in my relationships with my children in the past year, but this year I want to grow even more. I will take the time to really listen to them and be with them. I will take more interest in the things they are passionate about. I will validate their interests and encourage them to try new things. I will be more aware of my words and how they affect my children. I will repent when I have wronged them and ask for their forgiveness. I will speak life, LOVE, and encouraging words to them daily. I will be more affectionate and remind them often of how very much I love them and how blessed I am God chose me to be their mother.

LOVING LEARNING

Now that I am a college student, it is easy to let other things fall by the wayside because I have homework or other deadlines looming. But the education, discipleship, and care of my children should always come before my own. I will make every effort to make sure learning happens everyday. I will look for more real-life learning opportunities for my children and encourage them to explore new interests in an effort to attain new skills. I will lay off on the table time, and make sure I am focusing on the true objectives of education as God intended it to be (more about that in a future post). I will encourage them to work towards figuring out what God's purpose is for them, and provide the means for them to move towards that purpose. 

LOVING MY GOD-ORDAINED ROLE AS WIFE AND MOTHER

Let's face it, when you are at home everyday with your children, repeating the same tasks and routines day in and day out, it can get a little mundane. Burnout is always lurking just around the corner and it is easy to feel underappreciated or discouraged. The truth is, God has placed me in this house, with my husband and children, and given me the task of raising and taking care of a family. There is no "job" in the world I would rather be called to do! However, it is sometimes easy to forget that. It truly is a calling. My ministry is to my family. This year, I will remind myself of that when I start to feel sorry for myself or compare my life to the life of another. Everything I do, I will do with LOVE, devotion, and a smile because I know it is my Lord that has given me my tasks to complete, no matter how small or tedious it may be. I will not complain about folding the laundry or washing the dishes.... much ;)

I hope you now have a better understanding of how focusing on LOVE can have such an impact for change in one person's life, and why I have chosen to make LOVE my highest priority in the coming year. I also plan to be blogging much more. I have so much to share and it is important to get it out there so that it might bless someone else in some small way. I also really miss having a regular journal so to speak of our family's daily lives. 

How are YOU planning on making the most of the New Year?

Blessings,

Cassie

Busy, busy...

Well it's been quite a busy week here at the Simpson house! We haven't really been out of the house much, but there has been lots to keep me busy. Let me share a few tidbits on what's been keeping me occupied (and sometimes frazzled if I wanted to be honest)...

One major thing that has been going on since my hubby came home from the field is the extra occupant in our bedroom. See, Joey was sleeping with me while hubby was away (a bad habit I know but I hate sleeping alone) and even though we put him in his room at bedtime, we would wake up in the morning to see he had brought his pillow and blanket to the foot of our bed to sleep. Apparently he was waking sometime in the night and coming into our room. So it started with him sleeping on his mattress on the floor and ended several weeks ago with his bed in our room. I know, call me a lazy parent if you want, but after a long day the last thing I wanted to be doing was spending my down time dragging him back to his own room repetitively. So, we caved. That said, we really didn't have space for his bed in our room. Sooo I decided one day last week to move my office area into the dining room to free up some space. It made sense to do even without his bed in our room just because my desk rarely gets used because I can never seem to sneak away. Now ALL of our homeschool stuff is in ONE AREA and I can sit at my desk and work (with headphones in listening to classical to block out noise) on my school work, grading or whatever! Naturally, I had to do all the moving, rearranging and organizing myself since hubby couldn't help. I got it all done and both rooms squared away in about 6-7 hours one afternoon. I even took apart, moved, and reassembled furniture. Here is the desk/bookcase I moved out of the bedroom:

My IKEA desk

And here is where it is now (sorry I don't have a photo of the desk actually in the space yet). It's now in the left corner, with the shelf against the back wall and the desktop running parallel to the sliding glass door:

It really does look pretty good, even though now the living area doesn't seem quite as roomy as it once did. Also, I spent all last week writing and tweaking a paper for my class. The class is the required intro class all new students are required to take and is called Personal Dimensions in Education. I have actually learned several things that I think are going to help me tremendously in my core classes. We have covered study skills, learning styles, several theories about learning and development, researching and finding credible sources, and the writing process among other things. Anyhow, my first paper that I wrote for the second week in the class didn't get as good a grade as I had hoped it would, so I worked super hard on this one. I communicated back and forth with my TA for the class and she has helped tremendously. I think this paper might just get an A! Of course, the week isn't officially over til Monday evening and I'm sure the TA will take a few days to grade the papers, so I will be on pins and needles waiting to see how I did. My paper was about Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences and how it applies to my own learning experiences. It was a very interesting research process and I learned a lot about myself in writing it. Anyhow, as of right now, after 3 weeks of classwork has been graded, I have a 94 A average, so I'm happy. My next class is PSY 202: Adult Growth and Development. Should be interesting! I start November 1st.

Also, speaking of school, my financial aid was disbursed this week (sigh of relief)! I had been seeing a lot of comments on the AU facebook page from students who weren't getting their funds in their accounts on time, so I was slightly worried. No, I am not attending school just for the loan money, but I am not going to lie, we need the extra and we have a huge amount of things that have gone by the wayside since our pay has been short since we arrived here in April. So I called the financial aid department in Thursday (my disbursement was scheduled for Tuesday) to check on it. I found out that yes, they were behind on processing disbursements because of some glitch in their system, so they were processing each account manually. The woman I spoke to told me to keep checking my account and that they would get it processed as soon as possible. I also double checked to make sure all my paperwork was in order and that there was nothing on my end that might cause a delay. Lo and behold, Friday afternoon I got an email saying my funds had posted to mt student account. They have 14 days now to send my excess funds to Sallie Mae to be direct deposited, but it is usually done by the following week. So this time next week, I should have my money! It's a good thing too because 2 kids need coats, 2 need shoes, all the boys need winter clothes, we all need to go to the dentist and I need to go see the optometrist, among other things.

Homeschooling is moving right along, although we didn't do much formal learning last week. Two mornings I woke up to find Drew and Isaiah curled up with Wimpy Kid books on the couch, so I left them be. It's a rare thing, especially for Isaiah so I was tickled to see them doing it on their own! That's what homeschooling is all about. Next week, we do need to get back to the books, however. That's what I will be doing all day tomorrow - prepping their assignment binders for the coming week.

Well this turned into quite a LONG post, sorry about that! Hoping everyone has a great week :)

Blessings,

Cassie

My poor brain!!

Just dropping in to say I haven't posted much this week and I'm sorry, but my brain is FRIED. I am working on a paper for one of my classes and it is really giving me a hard time. I just can't seem to keep my train of thought or focus on anything long enough to make progress. I am determined to get this paper finished tomorrow so I will be back by Friday to write a proper post.

Til then, pray for my poor, tired brain ;)

Blessings!
Cassie

My first ever Fill-in-the-blanks Friday post :)

1.   Something popular that I can't stand/just don't "get" is      why 80's styles are making a comeback .

2.   Something unpopular that I secretly love is    lima beans      .

3.  When I've had a bad day I   am really cranky and snippy and should probably just stay in bed all day   .

4. I'd prefer    homemade iced coffee    to    a frappucino      any day.

5.  Something that makes me nervous is    the thought of my husband deploying next fall .

6.  Something worth fighting for is     harmony and peace in my home  .

7.  When people think of me, I hope they think    I am a caring and genuine person with strong faith  .

The best laid plans...

I have finally accepted something I have been fighting for years...life? It happens. And rarely does it ever happen the way we think it should or will. I have spent years trying to figure out the best way to prepare for our school years, weeks, and days. No matter what I try one thing is always painfully obvious - even the best laid plans don't always work out. Typically, when there is an unexpected change in our schedule, I spend quite a bit of time rescheduling lessons and figuring out how to be flexible without falling painfully behind.

I've decided to stop using my homeschool planning software (I use HST Plus and have for years) in spite of the fact that I absolutely LOVE it and there are so many awesome things I can do with it. I am going to start using a different system that I am pulling together from several different sources.

Last year I purchased Donna Young's Young Minds CD-rom. I purchased it about the time that she was finalizing her Homeschool Planner V2 that is essentially a very intuitive, well organized excel worksheet. The thing that has kept me from using it thus far is that it just doesn't have all the bells and whistles HST Plus does. But do you know what? THAT'S OK! It does the basics of what I NEED, without being overly complicated. That's where I'm at right now. I need thing's to be as uncomplicated as possible.

I recently started taking online college courses again. I am pursuing my BA in English, which I will eventually turn over into a Masters and possible even a PhD in order to teach at the college level. I won't get too deep into it in this post, but I will share more about coming to this decision in a later post. Obviously, I don't have as much time to spend organizing, prepping, and keeping records for homeschool. I am not trying to do it all by any means, but I thought for a long time about how I was going to fit college into our already hectic lifestyle and I am making it work, but I have accepted that some things just have to change.

So that's where I am at and I just wanted to share. There are lots of changes going on around here and I promise, these posts are coming as well.

Blessings!
Cassie

What happens when I get brave

I have always wanted to do something crazy with my hair but I've always been worried about drawing attention to myself. Well, no more! I now have bright pink hair! It was kinda a mistake (it was supposed to be bright red) but its definitely growing on me. I was even inspired to try some new hairstyles and make-up.

What do you think?

A Scary Day

Today I had to endure something I have always dreaded - watching someone I love go into surgery.

A week ago, my husband was participating in a joint training exercise a few hours from home. He had been gone for almost a month and it was the day before they were to return home. He was helping to tighten down a load when he lost his grip and fell off the truck. His feet were stuck under a pallet and he hung by his ankles - backwards - for several minutes before someone was able to help him get unhooked. He ended up with two injured ankles. Later that afternoon he sent me this:

 Needless to say, I was appalled. After almost a year in the Army and many opportunities for injury, he gets hurt falling off a truck! He worked on it all day and was sure it was just a sprain. I however was sure there was no way he could have gotten off that easy.

The next morning he returned home and we took him to the ER on post to have it looked at. After several x-rays and a few hours of waiting, the ER doctor confirmed it was broken and put it in a splint and told us to meet with the orthopedic doctor the following Tuesday. When we saw the doctor he told us hubby had already been scheduled for surgery on Thursday. He showed us the x-rays and explained to procedure to us. Hubby would have two pins inserted to realign the broken bone in the ankle joint and to help it stay in place.

Today was D-Day. His surgery was scheduled for 11 am, but as surgeries usually go, they didn't take him back to prep until 1:30pm. The nurse told us the surgery would take about two hours total and that we were free to go home and eat and relax for a little while. Since we only live a few minutes from the hospital, we went and grabbed some lunch and had a little picnic by the pond. Byt the time we returned to the waiting room, it was 3pm and I was then informed he wouldn't be done until around 4:30. by this time our oldest was home from school, so I took the boys back home to play and came back to the hospital a third time to wait.

They finally called me back to recovery around 4:45. the first thing the nurse asked me was if my husband had sleep apnea. I told him not that I was aware of. Come to find out, he had stopped breathing for a short time when he was under anesthesia. That was more than a little unsettling. When I got to him, they had an oxygen mask on him and were harassing him to keep him from falling asleep. After my arrival, that job became mine. After a while, he was able to remove the mask and stay awake with no problems. Before we left, they administered a pain reliever in his IV as well as gave him a block to block out some of the pain.

I finally brought him home around 6:30. He struggled with nausea for several hours and the poor guy hadn't had a thing to eat or drink besides water since midnight the night before. Other than that and some pain, which is to be expected, he is doing well.

I am praising God that there were no major complications and that the surgery went well. Now it is time to focus on healing and rehabilitation. He should recover full, normal use of his ankle within six months.

I told him he had better not plan on putting me through something like this again. :P

We are still here...

Yup, we are definitely in Washington! ;)

So my blog has been sitting here, lonely and neglected, for MONTHS waiting for me to plaster it's pages with my words. The problem is, I just haven't felt much like writing. I have plenty to write about, don't get me wrong, I am just not motivated to get it done. However, I worked really hard on designing this new blog and I had such high hopes for it so now is as good a time as any to get cracking and start sharing!

We have been here in Washington for over 4 months now but it seems like it's been so much longer. We have been busy, busy, BUSY! We absolutely love it here and our wish-list of things to do here is ever growing. We have had a few adventures and I plan on sharing each of them in the coming weeks (I hate playing catch up).

But as for NOW, I am short on time so I must go until I have the time once again to write!

Blessings,

Cassie

New Beginnings

Welcome friends! For my first post for this new blog, I thought it might be helpful to explain why I decided to start a new blog in the first place and give you a little bit of background about where our family is headed and how we got here.
The most pertinent thing I think I should share is that we are a new Army family. My husband enlisted and left for basic training November of last year. He finished in January and then spent 5 weeks in AIT (advanced individual training) for his job as an 88M (motor transport operator). Before enlisting he was a truck driver for 4 years, so it just made sense for him to go into the same field and use his on-the-job experience to earn an advanced rank through the Army Civilian Acquired Skills Program.
Our family spent 4 months apart through his training process and it was a huge learning and growth experience for all of us! There were some very real struggles on my part to keep things together in his absence, but all in all I think we did pretty good. Had it not been for my faith and my family, I don’t think I could have made it through as well as I did.
A week ago, after the movers came and packed up all of our belongings into a tractor-trailer headed to WA, we hit the road to make our 37 hour drive to Ft. Lewis – our first duty station.
The trip was absolutely amazing! For someone who has never been close to a mountain or has never seen very much of the country, I was very much in awe of the beauty of God’s creation. We experienced and saw so much on our trip – rolling hills, mountains, lakes, gorges, rivers. We even made a detour to stop and see Mt. Rushmore in all it’s beauty! Traveling here is an experience none of us will ever forget.

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After 5 days of traveling in a minivan we were more than ecstatic to finally arrive. Ft. Lewis is absolutely beautiful and I can’t believe this is where we are going to love for the next 1-3 years! Within a few days of arriving, we were offered a beautiful three-bedroom house (it’s actually a duplex attached by the garages) in a nice neighborhood on post. the housing is in a newer neighborhood and is surrounded by nice large yeards and lots of trees and is very close to the PX and commissary. We can’t wait to get our keys on April 6th and start getting settled.

(These pictures are not of our specific home, but taken from the housing website.)

So as our new life here begins, we are very busy taking care of paperwork and getting to know our surroundings. We have found a few churches we would like to visit and we know that God will lead us to the right one, the same way He did with our previous church. And so the process of putting down new roots begins!!

Blessings,

Cassie

Hey There… Remember Me?

Things have been crazy, crazy around here since my wonderful husband left to start his BCT at Ft. Sill, OK. I am busy getting a lengthy update written, but in the meantime I wanted to share something from our wonderful holiday with you. Bobby was able to come home for two weeks over Christmas and it was such a blessing to be able to spend that time with him, smack dab in the middle of his training. As you can imagine, we had missed him like crazy!! Here is a video of the entire family going to pick him up from the airport… get the kleenex ready and ENJOY!

Blessings,

IEW Phonetic Zoo – Crew Review

We recently received a wonderful spelling program from IEW to try out in our home called the Phonetic Zoo. Now what is really interesting about this program is that it is not your standard grade-level spelling workbook approach. This program is designed for students in 3rd grade and up and consists of three levels. Each level has 47 lessons that are taught by blending sound and sight methods in a way that is fun and easy for your child to remember.

Phonetic Zoo uses the average child’s love of the animal kingdom to make lessons fun and also uses animals as “learning pegs” upon which they can mentally “hang” each new spelling rule they encounter. A complete level set contains:

• Teacher’s Notes e-book (found on the DVD)
• Spelling and the Brain DVD/DVD-ROM
• Set of large flashcards
• Set of small “Zoo” cards
• One set of Audio CDs (Levels A, B or C)

With each new lesson taught, you introduce the new rule to your child using the teaching notes and the large flashcard that corresponds to that lesson. You then give your student the corresponding small zoo card to help them remember the rule of the lesson and it also has written on it a jingle or rhyme about the rule. IEW recommends that to use the program to the best of it’s potential, you have your student go through the lessons on cd using a pair of headphones, paper and pen (not pencil). The student then listens to the first track for the lesson they are studying and takes a test to see what words they can spell. They then listen to the second track for that lesson to make corrections and to reinforce the correct spellings of the words. The student repeats the same lesson everyday until they have gotten every word correct for 2 consecutive days. This ensures mastery and long-term retention of the material. The program also has periodic “personal spelling lessons” and each level has a final exam.

What I like about this program is that it is very teacher friendly and requires very little preparation ahead of time. The student moves through the bulk of the lessons independently. I also like that the student must really grasp that material before moving on to the next lesson.

I used this program with my son, Drew, who is 10, for a month and I actually saw quite a bit of improvement beyond what I have seen thus far using our current spelling program (or any of the others we have used in the past). However, after the initial newness of the program wore off, Drew became very sullen and begged to not have to continue doing the lessons. I think his unhappiness with the lessons came from his complete hate-hate relationship with anything that requires him to write things out repeatedly. The program requires that each word is written out twice daily during the testing and correction times. He thought it was very unfair of me to ask him to rewrite a word if he had already spelled it correctly in the first place!

I would highly recommend this program for an older child that struggles with retaining spelling rules. I loved the program and wish my son had liked it more, we probably would have continued using it!

Each level of the Phonetic Zoo can be purchased directly from IEW for $99 each and contains everything you need to use this program with several children. The fact that everything is reusable makes the program a great value! If you desired for each of your students to be able to keep their zoo cards, then you could easily purchase an additional set for a 2nd child for only $7.

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.

The Master Ruler (Crew Review)

We recently had to opportunity to review a few products from Master Innovations, thanks to the TOS Homeschool crew. Master Innovations is a company that specializes in making unique and easy-to-use tools to help children learn how to measure the world around them and understand tricky math concepts like time, fractions, mixed numbers, and much more.

We received two Master Rulers (one standard and one metric) and a workbook to try out. When I first learned about the review my first thought was, “Oh Goody, a ruler.” But after I visited the website and watched this video I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to get our products in the mail:

As you can see, the Master Ruler does more than just measure length. With the Master Ruler your students have a visual, tactile tool to use to help learn about fractions and their relationships. I tried out the products with two of my children. For my 8th grader, we used the ruler with the portions of the workbook covering fractions. With my 5th grader, we used the measuring portions of the workbook.

My 8th grader has long struggled with fractions and she found after getting the hang of HOW to use the ruler to help her, understanding fractions was much easier. All she had to do was use the ruler to find the mark that coincided with each fraction she was given and compare them. We both found this to be much easier even than using fraction “pie manipulatives” because it was quicker and there were no little pieces to keep track of.

For my 5th grader, this was his first time measuring anything more detailed than 1/4 inches. The different layers of the rulers for each unit of measurement made it easy to figure out how to measure things to even 1/16 of an inch! I am looking forward to using these rulers in the future with my 2nd grader also.

Along with the Master Ruler, Master Innovations has several other products available including the Master Clock, Master Fractions, and Master Angles. I have yet to try any of these other resources, but after reading the reviews of my fellow Crew members, I have added them to my homeschool “wish list”.

The Master Ruler (U.S.  or Metric) can be purchased for $9.95 each directly from Master Innovations. I think this is a very reasonable price, considering how many uses it has and how sturdy it is. The Student Workbook  is available for $15.95 also, or you can purchase The Master Ruler Starter Set which includes metric, U.S. and a teachers ruler plus the workbook  for $41.25. Make sure to check out the other products that are available, too!

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.

Bright Ideas Press-Illuminations Y2 (Crew Review)

When I was a student, History was not one of my favorite subjects. But since I began homeschooling my own children, it has quickly become one of my favorite things to learn all over again. Part of that new found love is a result from all of the awesome History programs out there, and Illuminations totally fits the bill!

Never heard of Illuminations? Well I am sure you have heard of the Mystery of History yes? Well, Illuminations is a brand new all-inclusive curriculum from Bright Ideas Press, the publishers of MOH. Illuminations is an all-inclusive, chronological study of history that is Biblically based and centered. It covers Bible, Literature, Language Arts, Geography, History, Science, Life Skills and Humanities all in one very thorough guide that will take you and your kids on an exciting trek through the history of mankind. It is available in 2 levels covering grades 3-8 and High School. There are also suggestions for gently covering the same material if you have younger kids that want to join in the study. For our review, we chose to cover Year 2, 3rd-8th grade.

For this review, we were unable to give it as thorough a tryout as I would have preferred to because we were unable to purchase any of the additional materials that are recommended throughout the program. Luckily, we do have experience with MOH and loved going through the book a few years ago. SO this review is based purely on my opinions from giving the materials a very thorough study. I hope I can do it justice. Please bear with me as there is a LOT to this program and I want to cover a little bit of all of the elements that come together to make this program so unique and fun.

History

As I mentioned before, Illuminations uses the correlating book of Mystery of History in each year plan. Bible and Geography is incorporated into the study as well. Each weekly plan grid includes everything you might want to do for a thorough and fun study of history including daily history reading, notebooking, bible reading, mapwork, timelines and more.

Literature

The way Illuminations incorporates the Literature element of the program is probably my favorite aspect of the curriculum. Literature readings are recommended (and scheduled for you) that coincide with what you are reading in MOH and Bible. But the best part is the awesome study guides that are included. There is a study guide for every book your child will read in the program, allowing you to make sure your child is getting the most rom every selection.

Language Arts

I you choose to follow the Language Arts plans, you will have to make some additional purchases. However if you decide not to, you can still make use of the copywork in the program. You do have a choice of several curriculums to use with Illuminations that are already scheduled in the plans for you. These are Grammar Punk, English From the Roots Up, The Natural Speller, Write Shop, and Foundations to Writing.

Science

Year 2 of Illuminations covers earth and space science using the popular program: Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space. Every single day of lessons and activities is scheduled for you and you will never have to wonder what to cover next. Science plans include reading, discussion, vocabulary, memory work, and hands-on projects.

There is so much more to this program than I can share with you in one blog post, but if what I have shared here with you sounds interesting, I encourage you to check the program out for yourself! It can be purchased as a digital download direct from Bright Ideas Press for only $82.50 for a semester and $165 for an entire year. There are some great sample files available for you to view also and you can find them here.

Make sure you check out the Crew blog post here where you can read reviews on different levels/years of Illuminations, and other great homeschool products by Bright Ideas Press!

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.

3 Days Down–46 More to Go…

Monday morning my husband left on a bus from the MEPS center to the airport to begin his training as an US Army soldier… We were there to him get sworn in and see him off. It was a really tough day. That night he arrived safely at the reception battalion and that was the last I heard from him til the following evening.

Bedtime was rough. All the kids cried and were pretty much a mess. It’s hard to tell your kids they have to be strong when all you wanna do is melt into a puddle of tears yourself. But I did good, I calmed them down and comforted them and got them off to sleep. I was emotionally and physically drained from the last few days’ activities and went right to bed myself. That was the end of day one.

Tuesday was a better day. I was feeling much more rested and concentrated on getting myself back into the swing of things by cleaning up a bit around the house and hanging out with the kids. I got a 10 minute phone call from my soldier hubby when the drill sergeant came in and hollered for them all to be lined up by their bunks for roll call. After another 10-15 minutes, I got another call. It was so good to hear his voice and hear what his day had consisted of. He was pretty choked up and missing us all badly. I made a very conscious effort to stay upbeat and positive and encouraged him that we were fine and that things would get easier. That night, Joey ended up in bed with me. I wouldn’t have minded but that I really needed some down time to myself. That was the end of day two.

Today I spent a lot of time online windows shopping for a new family car. Ours is on it’s last leg and we are going to be in a much better financial position to purchase a new one. This is what we are leaning towards purchasing:

It’s a 2009 Dodge Journey R/T. It has 3 rows of seats and accommodates 7 people. This model has all the extras like leather interior, sunroof, and DVD entertainment system, and it fits into our budget. I will probably not end up with this exact car, but this is the model we are looking for.

My pretty decent day was almost ruined by a major mishap – I dropped my phone (which I carry with me everywhere in case he calls) in the toilet. Yup. I immediately fished it out, took it apart, and dried it the best I could. Shortly thereafter, hubby called. About 3 minutes into our conversation it shut off without warning. I couldn’t get it to turn back on!!!! I was flipping out thinking this would be the last phone call I would be getting from him until I could afford a new phone (which wasn’t going to be anytime soon). So I again took it apart and took the hair dryer to it. I managed to get it dry enough to power back on and hubby called me back. The audio was funny sounding, so I used the speakerphone. We ended up getting to talk for almost an hour!! I was on cloud nine. He sounded sooo much better and said that he had had a much better day today. He got to talk to the kids (except Jazz who is spending time at her mom’s) and they enjoyed hearing his voice. Soon after I put the kids into bed (without incident) and now I am laying in bed with a heating pad, getting ready to sleep. So ends day three.

All-in-all I think we are all handling things quite well. It’s not difficult for me to stay busy and distracted during the day, with four kids to take care of and teach and a houseful of cleaning to be done. But in the evening, it’s a different story, being able to speak to him each night he is in reception has been a blessing to say the least. I am really dreading the end of the week when he moves into barracks and will be lucky to make a short Sunday call home.

I have connected with an awesome group of new Army wives on facebook who are going through all of this right alongside me. It’s so nice to be able to chat with ladies who know exactly what I am going through. just about any time of the day, there’s someone on there to be a listening ear, or to just make me laugh. The Army really is one big family, and I am so proud and thankful to be a part of it.

In 46 more days, hubby will get leave and will get to come home for Christmas for a few weeks. The timing of his training is really awesome, since this break will split his BCT just about in half. I can’t imagine how I would cope If I had to go through a full 12 weeks without seeing him!!

I want to thank each and every person who has offered prayers for our family through this challenging transition. Please, continue to pray! Especially for my husband. I hope to be journaling our journey as much as I can over the next 4 to 5 months and beyond. It is my hope that it will be an encouragement to others who travel down this road as well!

Blessings,

Can Babies REALLY Learn to Read? (Crew Review)

  There are a lot of programs out there that claim that you can teach babies as young as six months old to read. This is something I admit I have been very skeptical about as I have seen the advertisements here and there in the recent past. Which is exactly why I was so excited to review a really neat product from Brill Kids called Little Reader. I was enthusiastic to see how the program worked and to see how my toddler would react to the lessons.

Little Reader is a computer based program that’s designed to teach your baby (or young child) to read using a multi-sensory, interactive methodology. The software breaks each short lesson down into 3 parts: Word Flash, Multisensory, and Picture Flash. The lessons are designed to be used twice daily and are very short. Each lesson groups the word list into categories, and your child will encounter the same words over and over again, allowing them plenty of exposure to new words. The lessons are fun, age-appropriate, and engaging. There are a plethora of options available allowing you to customize the lessons by choosing at what speed the screens changes, what pictures accompany the words on the screen, and you can even program your very own voice into the lessons! I only played with a few of these options during our review period, but there are plenty of ways for you to make the program work for you and your child.

We received the download version of this program which did not come with any of the optional additional materials (such as readers and flashcards). I used the software with my 2 year old son and within the first few sessions, he was hooked and even threw a fit wanting to continue doing more of the lessons after we were finished with that days activities. I don’t feel at this point that we have been using the product long enough to actually gauge whether or not he is learning to read with it, but there were several positive things I have noticed about using Little Reader with him. First of all, he was thrilled to have something of his very own to “do” on the computer (just like the big kids). Secondly, he really enjoyed the words and pictures and videos that played on the screen as we went through the lessons, and loved repeating the words that were shown to him. I never had to coerce him into doing the lessons at all. Every day I would ask him if he was ready to do his “baby reading” and he would immediately jump up and down and say, “Yes! Baby reading!”. Third, though I sat with him through every lesson, it was very much an option for me to set the lesson up and walk away if I needed to. That was definitely a very nice perk, especially when we have several times throughout our school days when he wants mommy to entertain him, but I have to help one of the older kids with schoolwork.

One of my favorite features of the software was that it gave me the option to print off picture flashcards for any lesson I wished. I did this for a few of the first lessons and again, Joey thoroughly enjoyed “playing” with the flashcards. Using the flashcards there are lots of fun ways for you and your child to interact with the words they are encountering in the daily lessons. This was definitely a plus in my opinion.

So can this program teach your child to read at an early age? I can’t really give you a yes or no answer to this question, HOWEVER, IF it is possible for a baby, a toddler, or even a preschooler to learn to read, I can see how this program would be an excellent tool to help you reach that goal. The developers of this software have really done their research and utilized it to give you a very thorough and fun way to expose your young child to the world of words. I do think that use of the Little Reader software (along with reading to your child often and as early as possible) is a great way to introduce your child to written language and can easily see how it would give your child a head start in that area. I have now taught 2 children to read (and am still teaching one struggling reader) and can see what a benefit Little Reader could be to every parent.

If you want to learn more about Little Reader, or any other Brill Kids early learning programs, you can visit their website here. The Little Reader program is available in several formats (including the download version) and pricing starts at $149. A free trial is also available here. If you are at all curious to learn more about the Little Reader program, the website is chock FULL of informative videos, screenshots, and information for you to browse through.

 DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free for review purposes through the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion.  Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner above to read more reviews on this and other products by other Crew members.