Oh my goodness! I haven't posted in so long! Since June, as a matter of fact and so much has happened in that time. Molly and Ryan started homeschooling in July ( the 18th, I believe) and life has been crazy since then. Well, life at The Appleby House is always crazy, but with the Frugal Family blog growing and doing the whole tv thing AND homeschooling, I am tired! I must say however, that it has been enjoyable.
Just to bring you up to speed on our homeschool year, we started in July out of sheer boredom. Molly and Ryan were fighting and you can only spend so many hours a day playing outside. I mean, you'd think with all of that fresh air and at least 8 hours outdoors that they'd wear themselves down and enjoy their time indoors, but that didn't happen here. I knew giving them a few hours a day of structured time would be best for them.
I started Ryan out doing some workbooks. I realized quickly that I needed to slow down a bit with Ryan. I was teaching him upper and lower case letters and trying to get him to write using lower case letters and I quickly realized that I should be very happy that he was writing his uppercase letters so well as a 4 year old. It's funny the things you learn about yourself when you homeschool! He knows all of the letters and all of the sounds they make, all of the shapes, colors, how to count, etc. that a 4 year old in preschool should know. My goal with Ryan is to have him reading before Kindergarten, so we have some time. I am also starting to focus more on unit studies with Ryan. We just finished our Fall Leaves section and we're starting the Firefighter unit on Friday. (Because we go to homeschool group on Thursdays). Using unit studies provides him with a more focused learning experience and although he's learning about leaves, he also learns colors, counting, letters, etc. based on a leaf theme. The same will happen with the Firefighter Unit. When we started homeschooling, Ryan wanted to be in on all the action and after a few weeks learned that 3 hours of homeschool time was a little boring for him. I bring him down now when Molly starts and we have a Bible lesson, work on Awana books and then start our math lesson. Ryan counts things for me, we play matching games with numbers, etc. Then we have Handwriting, which Ryan hated until I realized I was pushing him too hard (it's much more enjoyable now) and then we have Phonics time. Then, Ryan is done. He likes to play or do a puzzle. Sometimes I let him watch a video. I cannot expect him to sit in a chair at a table and move very little for three hours. Of course, the kids play outside or in the funeral home for most of the afternoon so they get plenty of P.E. time!
Molly really enjoys school and is excelling! Of course, that is Molly's personality. She thinks she needs to be the best at everything and everything is a competition. She is so proud of herself when she writes a letter better than Ryan does and I quickly explain to her that it is not a competition and that he's doing great! I am working hard with Molly to teach her thoughtfulness and encouragement. I was really proud of her for last week for cheering on Ryan as he wrote his numbers so well. This was a big achievement for Molly to be happy for him because he did so well without having to be told that she, herself, had done a fantastic job! AND, I am totally serious when I write that. She gets her competitive side from me, I admit it. So, at least I can understand where she's coming from and try to help her tame it a bit :) Molly is telling time to the hour, counting coins, writing addition sentences, using a ruler and reading like crazy! Today, in fact, she earned her first Book It (Pizza Hut) Certificate. I had her read a certain number of books to me and when she filled up her list, she got the certificate for a FREE personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. She is very proud of her hard work. Next week she'll start learning fractions. When did Kindergartners start learning fractions??? But, it's in her book so I'm going to teach it to her! Molly will be done with all of her Kindergarten work in December so I'm going to move her up to 1st Grade in January. Do any of you have any advice on curriculum? She's using Bob Jones right now, which is good, but I'm not sure that it's what's best for her.
Katie of course is not homeschooling. She's keeping us busy as she walks around the house like a tornado! She's a wild woman! She's into everything, knocking everything down and having a blast doing it. She's starting to talk a little more... she would talk A LOT more if I just took her pacifier away from her but she goes and finds another one. Katie is really into books right now. She'll bring lots of books and plop in your lap and hit the book until you read. And like all kids, she has her favorites like "Baby Bear, Baby Bear" that she wants read over and over. She's rotten to the core and cute as a bug! I am so glad we had a 3rd child!
Andy and I have been keeping busy with all kinds of things. Andy has been busy with the funeral home and recently resigned his position on City Council. He's trying to focus more on things he enjoys doing at church.
I have been keeping busy by blogging all the time, teaching classes and doing a weekly spot on WAND 17 in Decatur. I am so happy that October 18 is my last class for this year. I'm really tired and looking forward to relaxing and seeing my kids a little more.
Oh, we went to Disney world a few weeks ago, I forgot about that! HaHa! That was VERY exciting. The kids didn't know we were going. We took Andy's mom with us and had so much fun! It was nice having a 3rd set of hands, it made the adult/child ratio 3:3! That was helpful! The kids were very excited. We went to every single park and we did it all! It was so fun and we already can't wait to go back again!
We're also on the last road to debt-freedom! We are super, duper, super, duper excited about this! Just a little more to go and we'll be there! THIS is very exciting news!
I hope you're all doing well and I hope I can post again sooner than later in the future!
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