Homeschool

About 3 months before we moved here to Virginia, I woke up in the middle of the night with a stressful scenario playing out in my mind. I couldn't get the thoughts to go away and I felt like I had an answer to a prayer I hadn't even uttered yet. We planned to move to VA with David even though there was no promise of staying here past April. We wanted to stay together, so we moved. The wake-up in the night scenario was about the need for homeschooling the kids. This is not something I had ever thought I wanted or could do. So, I filed it away. Fast forward to moving and with all the housing stress and finding a house, we accepted housing in Porstmouth, about 12 miles from David's base.

After much research and visiting of schools, we felt the need to homeschool this year. I don't think I could've made the decision without the gift of Spirit in the middle of the night months ago. I was nervous and not sure of my abilities, or patience.

Finally, with a decision made, I plunged in. I am so grateful to so many friends who have given me ideas, suggestions, resources, and encouragement. My family has been so supportive, too. We started school and so far, aside from getting used to a totally different schedule, we are doing great.

I decided to pick and choose the curriculum I wanted to teach. I chose Math Mammoth for 4th and 1st grade; Spelling Workbooks for 4th and 2nd grade (Abby is a writing and spelling whiz, so we advanced her a bit.); Spalding method for Writing and Reading; Creationism Astronomy for Science, and The Story of the World Volume 1 for History. Both kids are taking Piano Lessons, and we are regulars at the Chesapeake Library. We are also going to start some fun lessons in Spanish.

David got orders to stay here and so it looks as though this homeschool will be our lives for the next 4 1/2 years. I'll keep praying; but so far, we have been so blessed in this journey. I feel so driven and inspired. I can't say it's been easy so far, especially with Jackson trying to be a part of it all, and both David and I going to school, too; but, we're making it work. I graduate from the University of Phoenix in February with a degree in Business, David will graduate from the Advanced Course at the School of Music in April, and if we stay on course, the kids will graduate from their first year of homeschool in May.

Below are a few pictures of our first days at school. We have so far, built a solar system for science, visited the Air and Space Center, done some "digging" for dinosaur bones in History, had spelling tests, math marathons, and an outing to buy a new piano. More fun and games to come!

Our school room



"digging" for dinosaur bones...aka, scraping clay away from plastic "bones"


Building our solar system



Air and Space Center Field Trip