Homeschool Decisions

I've had  many naysayers telling me that I shouldn't try to teach my daughter anything at her age. I've been feeling discouraged because she knows stuff that many 2 year are not expected to know, and none of it was of my doing. I haven't pushed her to learn so far I guess right now she's a natural learner. I just don't understand why people are telling me not to do anything just let her play. I think she needs more of a challenge, I see nothing wrong with teaching her to read at 3 years old. That's why I'm dead set on getting her hooked on phonics when she turns 3 years old, plus they advertise that they are for 3 to 8-year-olds, I see no reason not to try. I'm also dead set on trying Moving beyond the page first I like the idea of unit studies, and literature based studies, over other methods. What I'm having trouble deciding is what to do for math, I like the idea of concepts and reasoning over rules and repetition. That's why I'm preferring Life of Fred, but Life of Fred is short and I feel I would need to add more to it, I was thinking of Mammoth Math but now I'm thinking of Singapore math. I think I will go with Singapore because it includes a kindergarten level. I can't wait for things to get started.

Making a Homeschool Plan

I've been making a plan for homeschooling and comparing prices it's been overwhelming for me especially since I'm not going to start for a while. (DD is only 2)
For Pre-K I was thinking of starting Hooked on Phonics, Kumon First Steps or My Book Of..., and Before Five in a Row. I'm hoping to start Pre-K when she turns 3 just to see how it goes, if she takes to it awesome, if not I'll put it away for a little while.
For Kindergarten through 6th I'm hoping to use Moving Beyond the Page, I like the idea of a literature based curriculum. For math I'm still debating between Math Mammoth and Life of Fred, I could do a mixture of both but I'll have to wait and see how she does.
I'm also hoping to start a Latin program early on, I've been looking at Sing Song Latin, for 1st an 2nd, then Latin for Children, for 3rd, 4rth, and 5th, and then Latin Alive afterwards. When she gets older I'll let her decide on a foreign language, probably around middle school if she is doing well with everything else.
I want her to learn ASL but I think she would actually have to take classes for that. Maybe the Signing Time DVD's would work but only so much.
I'm getting nervous about making homeschool plans because she may not take well to the programs I'm choosing and that could be painful especially with how expensive these programs can be. We'll just have to see.

Weekly Goals 6/2/13

Personal Goals
-Drink at least 3 bottles of water a day
-Exercise at least 3 times this week
-Start a daily to-do list

Family goals
-read to Bear every night before bed
-no TV after 11(trying to get her to go to bed earlier)

Organizational goals
-Clean the bathroom
-Do a load of laundry every day

Weekly goals for 5/26/2013

Trying to get back to organization since I have nothing to do all summer long.

Personal Goals:
-Drink Water
-Exercise 3 times this week
-Read 3 chapters of City of Bones, and 1 chapter of Real Food for Mother and Baby

Family Goals:
-Read to Bear every night after bath
-No more juice or milk after bath
-Have at least 3 family meals together at the table.

House Goals:
-Clean the Kitchen and Keep it clean
-Weed the Garden and plant the tomatoes

Summer Goals

Since I do have a Summer class this year, I'm really wanting to try goal setting again. I have a few goals for the summer.
1. I'm going to start exercising again, since I'm pregnant it's mainly going to be yoga, I found a few prenatal yoga's and pilates.
2. I'm going to start weekly goals again. Mainly on Sundays. I also want to do daily to-do lists but that can wait.
3. I want to start menu planning again, it worked well last time I don't know why I stopped, I might try doing a two week or monthly plan.
4. Potty train my little one. It needs to happen and I know she's ready.
Those are my main goals for summer.
Sunday I'm going to start my weekly goals.

Garden Journal April 11, 2013

Just a short garden journal entry.

What has sprouted:

·         -Radish

·         -Black Seeded Lettuce

·         -Iceberg Lettuce

·         -Cantaloupe

·         -Red Sunflower

·         -Marigold

·         -Danvers half long carrot

·         -Other Carrot that I lost the seed packet and didn't label properly

·         -Marketmore Cucumber

Notes:

Grapevine is producing leaf buds; need to make a bigger trellis.

Strawberries are all doing better.

Haven’t watered waiting for rain.

Dirt under my nails (life update)

It's April, the weather is lovely, I've been in the garden planting and stuff. I've filled my current seed trays and I already have radishes, two different lettuces, and cabbage sprouted. I bought some Strawberry seedlings that are okay, some of them are thriving well, others need a little help. I also bought one blackberry plant that I recently put into the ground I need to get another one so that it will pollinate well. I started a sort of back-to-eden garden I don't currently have access to free wood chips so I'm just layering newspaper and compost.
My time management has gotten better. I'm now ahead in my classes. The assignments are given to me on Monday and I am able to finish them before the weekend. Most of the time within two days. Now to focus on my organization.

It's March

It's March, it's time to start the gardening and stuff. The days are getting warmer and longer. The trees are getting ready bloom and stuff. I love when spring comes around.
Since it is spring it is time to get some projects done. It's time to start turning the garden, I should have started in January with preparing the soil but I didn't, I still have trouble with gardening and stuff I blame my brown thumb. I know now is the perfect time to transplant strawberries so that they will be ready in May. Same with spring lettuce and other spring vegetables (note:this person needs to do her research she really knows nothing.) I'm probably going to be starting my seeds indoors within the next week. Hopefully all of my seed from last year is still viable. Also it's a good time to plant perennials like my grapes and my blackberries. I was looking at a full sized peach tree(not a dwarf tree) at Lowes but they're $30 a plant and I know I will need two. I've got plans to get some transplants withing a few weeks in the ground and start my seed for my garden.

Also now is good time to start making summer clothes. The "Spring" cloth is on sale most anywhere for Easter. They'll be on clearance after Easter. I've started making clothes for little berry time to make an array of summer play clothes (t-shirts, knee pants, tutu skirts). I have plans to make my husband a bar-b-Que apron, I also need to make some spring and summer clothes form myself.

I also have plans to clean house, time to put away the winter stuff and bring out the spring decorations(or make them in my case). I also need to clean out my seed trays from last year (I keep coming back to gardening I'm just that excited).

I started a project, more of a business on Etsy. After I make my first items and take the pictures I will start posting listings I can't wait.

Life update

This is just an update on things and how I'm feeling.
The exercise has been going well but I've discovered a new thing about myself. I've discovered that I'm not a fan of interval or circuit training, in videos, I'm okay with it if it's written down and I can take my own time and set my own time. Also I'm really not a fan of timed intervals but intervals with set amount of repetitions are better suited for me. What I really like is yoga, dance cardio, and martial arts style workouts. One of the things I realized is that sometimes I really don't want to workout but if I'm going to be doing yoga or MMA style cardio(both are part of the BeFit in 90 plan) I look forward to the workout, even if it is hard for me. So I'm probably going to be taking a break from the program and doing things like yoga and dance or martial arts style workouts. I might go back and finish the 90 program because I kind of feel like a failure for wanting to quit for now but I also know I shouldn't feel bad because as long as I am exercising I'm sticking with my goals. Plus I still haven't experimented with all the people that I subscribed to.

My diet has been the same. I'm not watching what or how much I'm eating but I am adding more wholesome foods like whole grain and organic. I'm still trying to kick all the chemicals out of my kitchen. Although I haven't changed much of my eating habits I have started to drink a cinnamon and honey diet tea. The tea is supposed to clean out toxins in my system and keep new fat from accumulating, it's not supposed to be a miracle tea but an aid in digestion and such. I've only been drinking it for only two days, I haven't noticed a difference yet, but I've not lost hope yet. Also I may not be drinking it right, I know I'm supposed to drink it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning 30 minutes before breakfast, and just before I go to bed. I haven't had the emptying effect yet but we'll see.

I've started doing home remedies I found on pinterest as beauty treatments. Most are natural and can be organic. I've found a new facial moisturizer that I'm trying, I want to stop using petroleum jelly. On that note I found a recipe for petroleum free jelly but it requires beeswax which may be difficult for me to acquire, but I haven't given up. Also I have been using coconut oil on my hair lately and I love it, I love it just as much as I love the tangle teaser. My hair usually soaks it up over night and it's starting to look more hydrated and lustrous. I'm looking for a way to improve the color, I don't want to dye it but I want my natural color to stand out more, need to do more research. I also want to find a better way to reduce my pimples, I know hydration, diet, sleep, stress, and the like so I need to work on all of these.

Shadow Ninja and I have decided to home school our children. I agree with him, I used to think that I would home school them but use public school as a resource but things that have happened and other parents talking about their experiences with public school. Especially stories from parents that actually pay attention to their children's school lives. I don't want to have to hear about my child getting in trouble for just being a free thinker. Also, I don't want to have to deal with things like other kids bullying my kid and teachers bullying my kid(yes, it happened to me in 3rd and 4th grade). Also I want her to develop her own strength and her own sense of self. I know I didn't have my own strength until after high school, and there are some things that I never would have done if I had though for myself instead of doing what people already thought or expected of me. I've been doing my research and the more I research the more I think that I can really do this. I can school my own children.

I have wanted to improve my time management for a while. I am a bad procrastinator and with Shadow Ninja on a random schedule, being able to create a schedule is difficult. I've come up with a way to keep up with my school work without waiting until the last minute. It seems to be working. I've been ahead in my homework and I even have down time. Now I want to add in time to do things like write, cook, craft, and design. I also need to work in time to teach my daughter the things she needs to know before we start pre-school. I really need to make time to potty train my daughter. Everyone knows that I try to make weekly goals or daily to-do list and I fail every time. I've read several time management advice articles and I know there's some things that I need to put on my to-do list until it becomes habit. Like going to bed, writing and crafting.

On that note I do really want to start writing again. I've never really finished any of my stories. I know I'm not that great of a writer but I at least want to get my stories out there. I've been wanting to set aside time to work on these stores and this blog. I want to start writing in a journal everyday just to get back into the habit of writing. Or typing as I am accustomed to doing. I like typing better because I can type faster than I can write, but I can speak faster than I can type so if I could get something like the dragon software it would be awesome. I've been thinking about re-writing fairy tales, I know cliche. I have two ideas to go on and I will probably do both at some point. One idea is to re-write the tales from another characters perspective, cliche, but I don't mean like from the villains perspective or the princes perspective I mean from the perspective of a completely made up character and that means changing the story a bit, I already have a premise for sleeping beauty. Also my other idea is to rewrite the tales in an urban or contemporary fantasy genre. The urban fantasy tales are going to probably take place in the same world so-as some of my stories could cross-over, for this style I already have an idea for beauty and the beast, cliche again. I really want to brush up on the original stories so I can capture the essence of what they were supposed to be and then turn it into my own.

One last thing I wanted to type about was where I believe this blog is going. I really don't know what I want it to be about, I have many interests so I thought I could just include all of these things in my blog. It's going to be a blog about my life. I am trying to lose weight, so I'm probably going to have  a ton of weight loss posts presently, but when I get tired of thinking about weight I might move on to my garden or my crafts or even hair and make-up. I might even surprise everyone with a post about books or my writings or even music that I see a good story with (if you know what I mean). One thing you got to know about me is that I love everything fantasy. Fantasy hair, fantasy costumes, fantasy settings, artwork and so much more so a lot of my stuff will be based around a fantasy style, except for those that can't be fantasy. Weird I know. I just want to make my blog my own and make it personal, same with my youtube channel, I tried to be like someone else and I just don't like it. I like making music videos and I might try my hand at it again(yeah my dinky slide shows). I've definitely gotten better at editing. I will just see where everything takes me.

February Goals (2013)

January Recap
I was able to keep up with exercising all through January. I'm up to day 13 on the BeFit in 90 program. I have only had 4 sodas this month so hopefully this next month I'll be able to drink more water. We've been good about shopping once a week, considering FIL has been sick so we've only been able to shop when Shadow Ninja is off work. Also we haven't had time to eat out either. I've been doing research about homeschooling Shadow Ninja and I are dead set on a home education, I've researched the NC laws so I don't think we will have legal issues, and I've found a group that I will probably join in a year or two.

Ten goals for February
1. Start weekly to-do list for school work
2. Start daily water tracker
3. Research different home school methods
4. Get up at 10 am or earlier everyday
5. Cook dinner 3 times this week
6. Continue BeFit in 90 program
7. Do 1 month 1 minute plank
8. Take measurements and body shots for weight loss progression
9. Eat half a plate of fruit for breakfast every morning
10. Spend an hour a day on Pre-K skills with Claire

Internet sadness

I try to make a lot of things from scratch. Lately I haven't been buying bread because I've been regularly making it. I've finally gotten to the point where I don't even measure how much flower I use, I go by how my dough feels. I still need work on my bread making but I get by.
I'm sad because I've been using one recipe that I found online a few months back. Just yesterday the person who posted the recipe on food.com took the recipe down, or the website did I don't know I just know it's gone. Now I'm kicking myself for not printing out the recipe when I had the chance because it was a really good recipe and I could change out all purpose flower with wheat flower without much change. Now I have to look for another good recipe but I'm smarter now I know to save recipes as soon as I can. I know that if we were in a grid down situation I wouldn't be able to look for my recipe so I have to print all the recipes that I'm going to use from now on.

On another note I got cabbage for really cheap yesterday so now I'm going to make freezer slaw. I hope it turns out well because I've never made cole slaw, much less freezer slaw. Hopefully it'll be good and it'll be enough to last until I grow some cabbage this summer.

These are the hands we're given
Keildra

January resolution part 3

I'm excited I haven't had a soda in over 2 weeks and I've been exercising everyday. I know I said I was going to start scheduling my workouts but I've decided to try the BeFit in 90 challenge. They give you workouts for each day and I after looking over all the days I think there is a rest day every three days (those will be my Yoga days). I was following the pop Pilates JaNEWary calendar but I can't really do hour long workouts so I'm going with BeFit's 30 minute workouts. Also starting tomorrow I'm going to start working on my planks. I currently do a cheater plank (on my elbows and knees) for 30 seconds so I want to work up to full plank and I want to be able to hold it for at least 1 minute if not more. I also want to work on my splits, doing split stretches, after I accomplish splits I'm going to work on improving my yoga poses(like crow, dancer, wheel, and a full headstand)
I'm still not watching what I'm eating and I've been failing at keeping a food journal but hopefully it'll all workout.
Now I'm off to bed so I can get up at 9 tomorrow and start the 90 day workout.

Resolutions part 2

My first resolution this year was to lose weight, like everyone else. I've been doing really good so far. I'm taking baby steps. Since December 29th I've been working out every morning. It's not been a regular workout, I've been doing what I feel like that day. At first it was one of the many circuit or interval workouts that I found on Pinterest but within the past three days it's been a thirty minute to an hour Youtube workout, whatever I feel like I have time for. I'm still sore especially my legs, I really want to do something that makes my abs sore but I haven't really found a good ab workout.
I haven't been watching what I eat but I haven't had soda since new years day, I have treated myself to a sweet tea but no soda. I have been buying better food and eating more cleanly but no calorie counting.
My only plans are to start organizing my workouts, 3 days of cardio, 3 days of strength training, and 1 day of active recovery. I want to make Sunday my active recovery day, restorative yoga and the like. I'm not sure what days I want to make my cardio and strength but I'll see to organizing that after I get into the habit of a recovery day.
I have plan to start putting more vegetables in my diet, less protein and carbs. I also plan to start counting how much water I'm drinking. I know I'm supposed to drink 64 oz a day or more but no more than 128 oz. I'm going to make sure to drink between those two amounts. I'm also starting a journal to write down everything I eat and drink.

Finally, I made a motivational board on pinterest. It's a secret board because none of my motivation really lead to an actual website just pictures on google or tumblr and I really don't want people to tell me my motivations are unrealistic. I know most of them are but to me it's not about looking like my motivation, it's about feeling like I believe they feel in the picture. I want to feel powerful and sexy. I want to feel like I can take on the world.