Catching up!

The past month has been a busier than normal month for us, thus the reason I have not been posting!
Keeping Evan on track with his lesson's has been a major issue for us all here, but we all started thinking that this is WAY to much like school...that we homeschool/unschool for a reason, and this is one of them! Stress! Making sure that he has ALL assignments done by a certain deadline. This is stressful. He also does not like that fact that he has do to work that is something he completed 3 years ago! Math they make him show them his work, that has never worked for Evan, he does not use paper to figure out problems...more stress. So we have pulled him from the online k-12.
We had a snowstorm here, last 3 days, and in the Pacific Northwest that is a long one! In one day we had 9 inches fall!





It was a lot of fun for us all! We also made snow ice cream, built a snowman, and snow angels. A blast!
I have a new sewing machine coming in a few days, and I hope within the week we will have a mini-van or car.
We signed another years least on this house, so that is good! Just can not believe it has been almost a year since we left New Orleans! I miss it, but I know that this was right for us at this moment in time.

When to roar

At the start of this new school year we decided to place Evan in the online k-12 program called WAVA, this was done with much thought and mixed feelings.
At first he was doing well, doing his work, and then it was like a wall came up, and it all just stopped. Evan stopped logging on, and stopped completing assignments. Emails, and call ensured, and then came the threats that they would remove him from the program.
This is not a happy Mommy. I am not a tough Mama, my kids are not ever forced to do anything, but when it comes to this, we have to do something. Evan is 16, he needs to understand that the choices he makes now will impact him for the rest of his life.



But...how do you do that? How do you convince someone that is of the age where they know everything?
So, I roared, and I will keep roaring until he gets it. I have no choice in the matter. I want so much for him, and I know that he also wants a lot for himself, so if I have to be the mean mama right now, so be it!
I do unschool/homeschool for a reason, but we feel that this is the best option for him at this point. He would like to become an attorney, that is a lot of work, and this is the work he needs to do now, so that way he can become what he wants.
So the roar will go on, and the battle has just began...and I hate having battles with my kids!

Coming to the end of summer

Summer will be over soon, even when we did not have much on one here in the PNW, but still I love it here.
One of my many reasons for moving back here is because the weather is much nicer, no extreme heat.
Our garden is growing rapidly...still not a lot to harvest yet. The chickens are in their coop, we have painted the kitchen and the bathroom. Next is to get the girls room decorated how they would like them.
We will be starting our official year of homeschool...yes another year of this! It will be out 9th year! WOW! I still worry that they are learning what they need, but then I watch them, and see what they do everyday on their own, and I know that they are exactly were they need to be at this moment.
I still worry about the reading issue for the girls, but I also know that it will come.
I watch them, my three beautiful, sweet children, and I just know that we are doing everything right. Each are bright, beautiful, happy, and are complete human beings.
Everyday I look at my children, and I know that we are also exactly where we need to be.

Homeschooling-unschooling

The summer is upon us, and we had to sit down and think about what we wanted to do for the summer.
Do we just keep going, or do we have a vacation? We have decided to do both!
Since we moved in March, our homeschooling/unschooling was not very active. We still have a lot of catch up to do, and well we have been rather slow about it.
With having a daughter severely dyslexic, and another one that feels she should not have to do more work than her older sister, it has been a challenge for us. Evan is on his own thing, he really is closer to a traditional unschooler, as he goes with what he want to learn at that moment. Of course I have to throw in things, but still he is doing really good, and is bring up historical people, that I have never even heard of!
I am worried about the girls, they are not up to the reading levels that they should be, and this is really scary. I want so much for them, and I am afraid that they may not be getting all that they deserve at home!
I know that they want to remain at home, that has become very clear, when I had to promise them that I would not send them to that "horrible" place!
Lamar County (TX) School's really damage my kids! I am still amazed at how fast a school district can ruin education for a child, for our it was less than 1 year! I know it is not fair to blame the who school distric, but the kids ended up with some really horrible teachers, and only a couple of really good ones.
I know that we will get a handle on this, but it still scares me that they will not have the love of books that Aidan and I do. Evan does, but the girls not so much. I am hoping that this will change soon!