Hi, I’m Lisa! 

My husband, Tim and I have been married for 21 years and have five children.  We currently homeschool four of them.   They are 17g(next week), 13b, 10b, 6b and 2b years old.  

We are closing in on the end of our 10th year of homeschooling. The years have flown by!   It has been hard, easy, scary, fun, challenging, but always….real.

We chose to home educate mainly for Biblical reasons in the beginning.  Being Christians, we wanted to add Godly principles to our children’s education.

After a short while, we realized we were also dealing with dyslexia and dysgraphia in our oldest child.  So, our story and our reasoning changed a bit-still Christian, but more. 

Now our homeschool also covers a language/developmentally delayed fantasy/sci-fi fan , one “easy breezy” artistic child, a very bright, possibly ADHD computer freak and the baby-our medical miracle heart baby!  Whew….

Our 6 year old is currently using T4L and is doing great!  We hope to add our 1o year old soon and then our 13 year old will squeak in before he gets too old.  Oh, how I wish I had T4L back in 1998….

That’s our story.  I hope to get to know you all and chat about all those things that make us who we are; so different and yet, so very similar…

Once again, Natalie just amazes me.  I can’t say it enough, I wish I had T4L when Emily was just learning to read, 8 years ago.  Anyway, Natalie is reading on her own now.  This week she went through about 10 small lessons mostly in the Language Arts curriculum for 1st grade and then a few others in the Language Arts Extention for 1st grade.  In these lessons there are sections where the story is read to her, then it asks her to identify different words and finally it makes her read the story back as each word is highlighted with a click of the mouse.  She did great and really enjoyed reading the stories.  As hard as it is at night (because I’m usually very sleepy) I let her read to me or we share the story.  She also reads to her dad when he’s working in the garage.

I am proud of her progress and her dedication to keep learning and to even go on T4L after being in school all day.  She doesn’t go on everyday, usually on Wednesday because she has a half day and Friday’s because she goes to bed a little later than usual.  The other days are optional.  She also goes one if she is reviewing something in particular that she may be struggling with. We just find one of the lessons to help her through that and so far we’ve been able to find something on T4L to match what they have been doing in class.

We are over our colds, still holding on to a little sinus or allergy issues but otherwise everyone is feeling pretty good and looking forward to our family vacation over the holidays.

Everyone, have safe and healthy week.

Terie

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to class.  It sure has been a season of colds and stomach bugs, sleepless nights and exhausting days, visits with the doctors—WOW!  I really feel like “super mom.”

Anyway, that’s all done now and we are ready to catch up and get back in gear.  Natalie is looking forward to doing her work online starting today.  She actually told me that she missed not going on her “homework page on t4l”–I guess she can’t get enough.

The one thing I have to say to everyone here is that it is amazing to me how quickly Natalie is learning to read.  I am just amazed and proud to see how well she progressing through letter sounds and words and her ability to read her books to me instead, although I have to admit that she wants to read to me at night and that usually means I fall asleep before she does.

I know that the time she spends on time4learning has been a tremendous help in her learning.  I now I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, I’m so glad I found this program.

Terie

This is science week for us. I chose this week mainly because fall has finally arrived and Natalie has been asking many questions about the leaves falling, the animals, the plants that die and the ones that live during this time of year. I remembered a while back that there is a section in the Science curriculum that focused on the world around us and recognizing the changes that occur as we enter each season, etc.

We just started this section and Natalie loves it. It also happens to be the same thing they are doing in class so that’s a huge plus. She only got as far as Spring yesterday with huge plans to finish that section today. However, it’s late and she might be a little tired tonight. She usually logs in after breakfast and before he bus comes in the morning.

The plan is to incorporate the lessons with real life activities outside. We live in Virginia, the souther part, and the weather is still somewhat mild around here. Side note here —>It’s really strange, however, that sometimes we play in the fall leaves and it’s 75 degrees outside, other days you have to wear gloves and a hat. Anyway, we went for a walk in our yard to find the flowers that grew in the spring and to talk about the changing colors now that fall is here.

I’m learning and enjoying this particular lesson as much as she is. Autumn and spring are my favorite seasons of the year, but I do look forward to snow and the crisp winter air– what better way to enjoy a hot cup of cocoa with marshmallows–yum!

I hope everyone is enjoying this colorful time of year as much as we are!

Terie

Well, like many of you, we have had one of those very strange weeks.  I am the last person to get sick in my house so when I do, you know things are getting ugly.  My husband injured his ankle with an axe- that meant a few hours in the ER–once he got passed the pain, we laughed it off and the ER was totally empty.  It was a complete housekeeping accident, he’ll be fine once his stiches are heeled. Both my older kids have had a perpetual cold due to the seasonal allergies, my dad is visiting from the Dominican Republic, he’s a diabetic so I have to be careful what I feed him–you know I can’t get away with pizza and Mac N Cheese, plus I totally expected him to get sick as well.  He did not so far–Thank God!  He did however get a small stomach virus which lasted a day.  He’s also fine.  The baby did not get sick but he’s teething, which means I’m not sleeping.  Natalie has a bad cold which caused her to stay home from school today.  She’s better now but was up three times last night with either a headache, a fever or needing water.

OK so basically, I did not sleep last night and kids for some reason, get better during the day, while mom’s are still trying to recover from lack of sleep.  I asked Natalie to go online and do her lessons so that I could rest while the baby takes his nap.  She was so sweet. She said, “if I do all my lessons, can I have an extra halloween treat?”  I said, “I will give it to you in advance if you let me take a 1/2 h our nap.”  Negotiation at work here.

Natalie did a few lessons, read some of her stories, practiced her words and was so, so good for me today.  I did not nap, but I was able to have a mental break.  Once the time was up, because she was not about to forget when time was up, she showed me all the work she had done.  She’s very excited working on the first grade material now.  She is looking forward to doing the same in math, however, she has a little bit of work to do there first.

So after all this chaos in my house, it was not only my positive attitude that kept me from cracking under pressure, but having time4learning to keep my little Natalie busy while I took a recovery break.  You guys are the best…I agree with that!!

Thanks.

Terie