I'm ALIVE!!!

Woah...I don't even want to know the date on my last post. Needless to say I'd taken a wee bit of a blogging hiatus. I just got nervous realize how new to the homeschool game I was and what business did I have writing a blog about it all!

No, I didn't give up on homeschooling. There were times where I wanted to, but luckily those were quickly out weighed by all the incredible growth that has gone on in our family over the past year and a half. We are loving this. My husband is loving it. My mother loves it. My KIDS love it! Yes, the kids!!! Cause that's the real reason I'm doing all this crazy business...it's for my kids. After our first year of homeschool I sat all of them down to discuss our options for the next year and they all unanimously decided that they wanted to homeschool again. No, they've never had bully/social problems in public school. In fact, they are all such social butterflies and yet they practically begged me to keep homeschooling them! I'd call that a success.

Before I write a post on where we are schooling wise, I just want to let you know that we're back at my folks house for a fun 2 1/2 month vacation so we've taken our schooling with us. Just the basics though...books can be pricey to ship back and forth! We spent a good portion of the previous school year road tripping around and this year looks like it will be very much the same thing. It's been perfect for these island kids who have never seen the mainland before so we're soaking it in and jumping at every opportunity to travel around and give them first hand geography lessons! We'll be in Hawaii until the beginning of December, stay in Phoenix for a week, and then travel the southern route back to Tampa. I'm sure I'll have PLENTY to document. Hope you come along for the journey!

Curriculum: Math

Thanks for the input on virtual vs textbooks as well as all your comments in my opening post! I have a feeling you all are going to be SO helpful to me as I navigate through all of this.

So, I have a question and it's a big on. Math..what do you use??? I know math may be an odd question to start off with, but the math program my kids used in the last school is part of the reason we're running away from public school! I promised myself that if our public school continued using "Everyday Math" we would NOT be enrolling our kids next year. We just can't do that curriculum again. I'm sure some have used it and have great success, but it was a total flop for my kids. Out of all the subjects, this has been the biggest struggle for me because we've already found one that was oh, so wrong for us. I don't have time to waste on another one that doesn't work, I've still got to go back and fix all the damage from years of "Everyday Math".

What have you tried? What didn't work? What has worked? WHY???? Yes, I want to know ALL the whys!

Once I get math figured out, the other subjects won't worry me so much, so let's get this one out of the way, shall we?

PS, my follow up post will be summery of the comments just in case anyone else is curious about the same thing. This way you won't have to check the comments for any updates! I'm thinking about you!

I'm LOVIN' on this quote!!!

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." -Eleanor Roosevelt.

Remind me to have my kids memorize this when they're teenagers!

Virtual vs. Textbooks

Ok, so my first big question is...do you prefer your children to do their school online/computer work or do they use textbooks/workbooks/lapbooking or a mixture both???

I have met several people, including my cousins who have done the K12 program online. I found this pretty extensive list of online curriculum possiblities...
http://www.homeschool.com/OnlineCourses/

I've also been flipping through some textbooks that have been used by friends and have been thinking about using those.

It all looks so wonderful! So, what do YOU prefer??? Do your kids do all their work online, use textbooks, or use a bit of both?

Let's start at the very beginning...

Aloha! Thanks for checking this blog out. Seriously folks, I NEED your help! Who am I? My name is Molly and I'm currently pregnant with my 6th child. This year, I'll be starting the adventure of homeschooling my 9 year old, 7 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old. I'm excited and a wee bit terrified. What if I miss something? What if I choose the wrong curriculum? What if ...uh...my kids get a bit weird??? The last one's a joke, I'm sure there are just as many weird public school kids as there are homeschool kids. Besides, weird makes things fun, right?

At the moment we are in the middle of moving our family from Hawaii to Florida. My husband is already there and we'll be joining him in the beginning of July. I had high hopes of starting my homeschool mid-July, since we'll be headed out to Utah for a reunion in August and I'd love to have things a little figured out by the time #6 comes mid-September. I've spent countless hours reading blogs, checking curriculum, trying to figure out the legal aspect of it all. There is SO much information out there! It is awesome and overwhelming all at the same time. This is where YOU come in! Can you help me navigate through this crazy homeschool world? What works for you? What did you try and it flopped? How do you make it work? What keeps you sane? For the next few weeks, I'll be posting questions about the things I find and hopefully SOMEONE out there will find my meager little blog and have some answers for me.

Oh yeah, the cast of characters.

Molly=me, of course! I like to bake, sew, SLEEP, read...all that good stuff. I'm a bit of a goof ball and most of the times I still feel like a kid even though I'll be turning 30 next year.

Hotness=my husband. Those of you who personally know him may laugh at his nickname, but you've got to admit, he's a bundle of hotness. He's our breadwinner who makes it possible for me to be home with my lovelies. He is SO supportive of my wacky homeschooling idea. He is such a family man who can't get enough of his kids.

Jedi=our 9 year old son. He loves legos, star wars, video games, surfing, golf and soccer. He's a spectacular big brother and he's my right hand man around the house.

Little Momma=our 7 year old daughter. She is very artistic. She LOVES to read. She is so into nature right now, it's amazing! She will often hop on the computer just to google what a certain creature eats or about their habitat.

Rascal=our soon to be 6 yr old. He's a ball of energy. He's rambunctious and sneaky, but he is the most generous of all our children. As soon as he's given something, he starts talking about who he can share it with.

Momma's Boy=our 4 year old. His name says it all. He's a snuggler and hand holder. I think he always has a song in his head because it's not unusual to find him dancing in silence. He is such a joy.

Chicky=our 17 month old (Jan 19, 2009) daughter. She has finally found her walking legs. She is just starting to talk and is currently the center of attention at our house.

#6=baby girl due in Sept. No names yet...but as everything else, I'm open to suggestions. We're looking for something that ends in an "en, on, an, in" sound and is after a place...yeah, it's silly, but it fits our pattern of girl names (which I didn't realize until after naming Chicky that both girls are locations!). Have I mentioned I'm a little quirky? no?? well, I am...and this just goes to show it.

So, that's us in a nutshell.

What about you?

Are you up to the challenge? CAN you help me? WILL you help me???

...pretty please???