Plan, Plans, Planned

I promise this is not a grammar lesson. I do like when we are doing school, but I would not subject you to that. Just an update on some past posts.

We have a mentor for the big girl. She is a very close friend of our family, and I had the hardest time asking her. Stupid tears. She is such a blessing to our family. She is very grounded in her faith and that's what I wanted for my daughter. She has to meet with the big girl once a week, but we see each other 3-4 times a week, so that's no big deal. The big girl is very comfortable with her and I hope they both take some great things away from this experience.

We finished "James and the Giant Peach". What a funny, funny book that was. It was one that we laughed out loud at and recited lines from. Roald Dahl is creative and amusing and a wonderful story teller. We started feeling very sad for poor James Henry Trotter. By the end, we were impressed with his ingenuity and intelligence and humor. I will say that the word "ass" is used a couple of times, as in "You ass." I just substituted butt when I read it, except the first time. I wasn't ready for it or I would have edited myself. Centipede is quite the character. Earthworm reminds me alot of Eeyore. Sad little creatures, really, but so cuddly in the books.

Our book now is "The Family Under the Bridge". It is the book that the big girl got in her prize bag from the library. It has been pretty good so far. It is about a homeless man that finds three kids nad their mother living under a bridge where he normally lives. He is not happy at first, but you know he'll soften up somehow. I'll let you know how this one is when we are done. Our next book is "Where the Wild Things Are". We also picked up our newest book on CD from the library today. We are doing "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH". I read this when I was a kid and remember loving it. We'll see how my kids do.

This is teh last week of Summer Reading Camp. I think they saved the best for last with the performers. His name is Scott Humston and he is a magician. He is also one of our homeschool dads. He has a great act and teaches the kids about character and integrity when he is performing. The boy got to go on stage and help him. I'll post the video. It was hilarious. The boy was GOOD! A better assistant could not be had. You get to see how much he loves to perform.

I am leading JAM again this year. We had a meeting yesterday and hammered out a lot of details that were bogging me down. I am not, and cannot, do as much of the administrative stuff as I did last year. So we are going to give it a try. I am actually excited about some of the plans that we have. I think that we can make this year very successful, but we are going to need some volunteers to get it done. There is also some changes in staffing at the schools that are close to us. The principals are changing at the high school that we get our teen volunteers from so we need to figure out how that is going to work. I do have some scheduling to do, which is what I need to do now, instead of blogging.

I also need to sit down and figure the scheduling for our confirmation classes. The retreat is the first weekend in October and we have to have four classes done by then. And I need to update our lesson plans. Thinga aren't going to go just as I wanted them to because...

I just got my first ebook to review. Look for that in a couple of days. It is a unit study on the solar system. I am really excited about it and it looks really cool. It has lots of activities and links for us to use, but more on that part later. We did the solar system when we first started homeschooling and we all liked it. I'm looking forward to doing this unit study. I just have to remember to be flexible with all of our plans as more material comes in.

Our co-op that we do with our friends is starting to expand. We are adding a new family to our group. We are also meeting every Tuesday. Now that we are at five, it seemed the only practical way to get everybody's lessons in. I'm doing an inventors lapbook. I got Microsoft Office from a friend and now have PowerPoint. I am going to try to put together a couple of presentations to use during our lessons. We'll see how that actually goes. I've had fun playing with it so far.

I will not be able to help with the homeschool group. Right now there is enough on my plate that I just do not think I can catch this ball and still catch all the other ones I need to. I think it would stretch an already tight schedule even tighter. We haven't even started dance and isn't that going to be fun when we have to sign up for that. I'm going to try and get some classes on the same days. I really don't want to do four days again. That takes so much time away from us. We'll see how the schedule goes. I just feel a need to be home as much as possible.

That's our news and updates for now. It's till early, so I think I am going to run with my kids outside. My prayer today is that we all listen to the words that God is speaking. Blessings on you all and all that you love.

Have a great day!