On My Mind Today

• I have been at complete peace with our decision to homeschool Maggie for quite some time, but I have still had a lot of worry and fears. I have put all of that aside over the past week and I ordered our first little batch of curriculum. I'm taking the advice of several other homeschool moms and we're going to start on kindergarten as soon as we get our order. Right now, my plan is to start on first grade work as soon as we can. Maggie can read, write and recognizes the letters and the sounds that they make and that is what most of kindergarten is all about. Maggie is very anxious to "do" kindergarten, so we're going to get started and work at our own pace. Working at Maggie's pace is one of the biggest reasons that we want to homeschool. I could go on and on about how children are "on the same level" in public (and many private) schools, but I don't want to climb on my soap box. Big Daddy and I saw first hand how everyone works on the same level this year in preschool. Maggie's preschool uses "H@ndwriting Without Te@rs" and I definitely think it's better than no handwriting curriculum, but we don't like the idea of only teaching uppercase letters, so she lost much of her lowercase writing skills. I talked to her teacher about it when I met with her before school started and told her that I didn't agree and would like for Maggie to continue writing with upper and lowercase letters, but of course Maggie wanted to do as the teacher told everyone else to do. I'm still blown away that over half of the class couldn't write their names at the beginning of the year- at four plus years old. I think back to when I taught preschool and the majority of our kids could write their own names well before their fourth birthday. (Most of the children in my Awana class can't recognize their names and they are all young fours now, so I've decided that I just have high expectations.)
• I have joined a couple of homeschool-networking sites and I now subscribe to many homeschool newsletters and blogs. What has my life become?? Never in my wildest dreams did Big Daddy and I think that we would really be doing this. I really am living the dream...
  

• I have the urge to do something creative. I'm still working on ideas for Ellie's room: looking at fabric and paint choices. I'm still thinking about buying a sewing machine, but I hate to spend the money on it when I don't really have time to sew right now. It would frustrate me that Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and the sewing machine were all wanting my attention. ;-)

• Our family beach trip is coming up fast, but we have to get through Maggie's graduation and Awana awards and several birthday parties for friends.

• My nephew will graduate BLET next week. Nephew + Career in Law Enforcement = Valium for me, my mom and my sister We've already given him his graduation gifts, so I feel like we've already celebrated. Big Daddy bought him a new gun (because nothing says "we're proud of you" like a Gl.ock) and a nice, expensive Sure Fire flashlight. Big Daddy truly believes that a good flashlight and a gun are the two most important things you can own. Therefore, we have plenty of both.

• Big Daddy is very busy at work and summer school is in full swing. That means we won't be seeing very much of him for the next few weeks. :-(

• My favorite pair of flip flops are five years old and cost $20. I think it's time to invest in a new pair of OKA b's. I bought them after I tried on R@inbows and found out that they just don't fit my feet. I'm already having trouble deciding which ones I want, but I need a pair in black. I bought black, cork-wedged flip flop-like sandals last week, but they're more to wear with dresses to church. So...

• All of the moms that I talk to seem to be having the same feeling as me: it costs so much just to live these days. I do all of the grocery and household shopping and I shop without Big Daddy for most clothes for Maggie and Ellie. It seems like I spend sr o much for so little. After LOTS of people told me I should try Aldi, I did. My mom and I decided to go one day when we were killing time before picking Maggie up. OH MY! We both fell in love. Very few of their products are name brand, but I buy lots of "store brand" stuff anyway. The only things I've bought at Aldi are fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and meat and dairy products, but the savings are unbelievable. We REALLY like the things that we've bought more than at the "normal' stores and we think that the produce is fresher. I usually save around $1 per gallon of milk and we drink lots of milk. I think it's really important to shop different places. Big Daddy and I LOVE to go to the Farmer's Market, but we can only go on weekends and not usually every week.

• Maggie wanted her hair to grow LONG, but she started asking for a haircut a few days ago. I caved yesterday and gave her a trim. I couldn't bear to throw her hair away, so I saved it in a bag. Is that lame or what??? She's five.

• Maggie used her allowance and birthday money to buy a digital camera. OH MY!!! She snapped about 100 pictures in the first few hours. Lots of pictures of Ellie, fruit and furniture. I think she's really going to enjoy it. She has to buy her own batteries, so she's learning to view pictures on the laptop and save her batteries.