It's been a while!

I have been sitting here at the computer most of the day (when not holding Patrick), typing out lesson plans, and quizzes the kids need for tomorrow. Some of the questions or assignments they need to do are listed in the parents lesson plans, and not in the books. Such as discussion questions, diagramming sentences, and questions about stories they read this week in the Bible.

I  realized it's been a long time since I have blogged or given any updates, so here it is:

It's been an interesting couple of months since I last blogged:

We found out we are expecting our 5th child (6th pregnancy) in early July. While this has been a wonderful surprise, it has also thrown our schedule for a loop! Mostly because of the exhaustion I have felt over the last few months. part of that is due to anemia, and part of it is, I am a pregnant mother of 4 kids whom I homeschool. 

While I hate to admit, I am going to anyway. In my last blog I mentioned I was going to have the kids start grading some of their own work, and the first few weeks of that went great..........then the nausea took up residence, along with the anemia, and I got well....LAZY.  I didn't stay on top of the kids with them grading their own work, like I should have. When I first started them on the grading their own work, they were doing GREAT! I was able to trust them, and only spot check their work about twice a week. Well in my laziness  I hadn't checked up on them in a few weeks, because they had done SO well.................BIG mistake!! 

When I did finally start getting some energy back, I started on all the grading that I was behind on. Let me tell you, what I found was a huge eye opener! Libby was struggling with her English, and when she didn't understand something, instead of coming to me to ask, she would simply put "Ask mommy or daddy" and move on. Justin thought it would be okay on his math, to put -48(!) instead of doing his math work.....I couldn't believe it!! Both of them did this on several pages in these two subjects.

Well, after some mighty long talks about responsibility and some apologies from me as well.....I don't think this will be an issue ever again. I think all of us learned from this very hard lesson! The good news is, while this did set us back a little bit (due to needing to go back and complete these assignments), we are still on a pretty decent track. I think I had mentioned in and earlier blog, we were set to finish up school in late April. Now it is looking more like the end of May, but keep in mind we are planning a vacation in there as well to Ohio to visit with Brian's parents and family. We haven't been back "home" since Faith was 2 years old, yep, it's been 3 years since we have been out to visit the Battson side of the family. Brian's parents are the only ones who have met Patrick, and that was when he was just a few months old! I think it's about time we head that way to see them! No we will not be taking school with us on this trip.

So, there you have it..........it's not pretty, but it's honest, and for those of you out there wondering what we have been up to, now you know. This has definitely been a learning year for all of us, as we adjust to this new way of life. We have no regrets at all to the choices we have made as a family and for our family. I still firmly believe this was the best choice for us. Does that mean it's right for you?? No. That is up to you and our Heavenly Father to decide. If you are thinking about trying homeschooling, my advice at this point would be spend lots of time in prayer asking God if this is where he is leading your family. It took 2 years of prayer and research, and more prayer, and asking advice from homeschooling families, as well as close friends, for us to make the leap into homeschooling. 

Blessings and love to all of you in 2013!