Where have we been?

Wow! It has been a month since I posted. So much has gone on … but mainly we were sick. I will try to recap most of what has happened in our life.

Health ~ Kalie’s allergies are acting up, but that is too expected with the time of year. Kasie caught a “cold” and brought it home to us. I guess because I have been under so much stress lately my immune system is decrease because it turned into walking pneumonia for me. I was pretty much useless for almost 3 weeks. So Kalie has had a very light spring schedule. LOL! We are better now and things are picking up for us. I told Kasie the next time she is sick, she needs to stay at North Greenville. I DO NOT want any more of their germs. I have been sick 4 times since she went to that school. Kalie keeps telling her that she needs to "do college online at home" so we won't be sick.

Girl Scouts ~ Our cookie sale ended with about $350 in profit for the troop. I think that is good since we only have 7 girls. Two weeks ago we had a new girl join the troop, Celeste. She is a friend of Lauren. So we are now up to 5 brownies and 3 juniors. Our service unit is hosting their annual encampment at Camp Wabak on April 18-20. We are so excited! I had a lot of down time when I was sick so I was able to plan lots of stuff. Our end of the year hurrah/cookie sale celebration will be at Build-A-Bear on May 31st. Our awards ceremony will be June 2nd. Our summer plans are almost finished with a meeting every 3 weeks and a field trip or activity once a month.

Izabel ~ She is one wild and crazy dog. We love her to death but she is worse than the cats or the girls. The pets wake me up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning to be let out. YUCK! I usually am up for the rest of the day after that. We had been letting her sleep with us but she was not very good. She would want to play at about 3:00 am. So now she sleeps in the crate at night. I checked into the AKC. We are going to register her with the AKC but I do not think we will show her. It seemed to me that the “clubs” in our area were a little too high strung for us.

School ~ Kalie has “learned to read”. Yea! A few weeks ago she read her first chapter book all by herself, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. She is now reading everything she can, mostly out loud. LOL! So things are changing around here. I am able to give her a little more independent work. When I was sick I had lots of time to veg out, watch TV and read. During that time I was also able to “research” and make decisions for the next school year. We school year round so our new year will begin June 1st. So … I think we will be a little more structured with things and will be adding in new subjects. I am going to try to “hold her back” and keep her in the 2nd grade range. I have thought about this for most of the year and I just do not think it will be a good idea for her to go to college 2 weeks after she turns 18, which is what will happen if she goes to 3rd grade now. I think I might phase in the new stuff one at a time to help with the transitions. We will notebook and lapbook most of our subjects. My plan is:
· Bible - Calvary Chapel (free online) to create our Bible Notebook (this is what we do now and it is working)
· History and Geography - Story of the World 1
· Science - Apologia (deciding between Zoo 1and Astronomy)
· Reading and Language Arts – Learning Language Arts Through Literature (trying to decide on which level to start her in)
· Math - ????? We did a textbook and that did not work well. We tried RightStart but I had the wrong level (too easy) and she hated it, I don’t think she will try the next level. I don’t know if we can afford Math U See, so… any suggestions? We have been playing Math games and using real life math for about 6 weeks now but I know we need something more.
· Art – Next year (September) we will take art lessons from Samantha Bell again. She is wonderful and Kalie loves it! (Not sure what day next year.)
· PE – I hope to be more disciplined and get her to homeschool PE every week. (They meet Mon and Thru, but we usually do Mon.)
· Music – I would love to get her piano lessons, but we would need to get a piano or keyboard so she can practice.
· Girl Scouts – We will continue on Mondays.

WOW! Now that it is all written out it seems like a lot. I am overwhelmed. LOL!

Church ~ We have not been to church in over a month because we have been sick. I am so looking forward to it this weekend! Hopefully we will be able to go to community group also, but that will depend on the older girls work schedule.

Katie and Kasie ~ They are to be finished with exams and will be moving back home April 30th. So, please pray that the transition will go smoothly. Kasie will be working at Girl Scout camp again this summer. She is very excited! Katie is trying to get a job as an overnight resident counselor at Camp Spearhead (special education camp) or the recreation center (day camp).

Well I think that is it. I hope you have enjoyed this recap. LOL!