My First Blog

Hello,

This is my first blog. I love to write and plan to blog on topics about homeschooling, motherhood, my hobbies, and being a wife and Christian. Not necessarily in that order!! Today is May 22nd, 2008 - it is a beautiful, sunshiny day here in West Central Minnesota. There is no snow on the ground, woohoo! That is something to celebrate - considering it snowed on the 10th and that earlier this week it was below freezing one night!! As my Dad used to say, "The cold weather keeps the riff-raff out."

For those of you who don't know me, I have been happily married almost nineteen years, and my husband and I have five children - three girls and two boys. Peaches is 15, Pickles is 13, Peanut is 12, Pumpkin is 7 and PeeWee is 5. We have been homeschooling since the very beginning of our parenthood. Sometimes it is a bit more of a challenge with Peanut, our middle child - because she has Down syndrome. I use a variety of curriculum and try to adapt what we have to fit her needs. I hope this blog can encourage other homeschoolers, especially those who are homeschooling children with special needs. It can be done!

Since we homeschool year-round, we won't be having a long summer break. I don't like to have to review or re-teach things in the fall, and I prefer to keep our schedule basically the same all year long. We have "official" school days 3 to 4 days a week, and we usually take off any days Daddy has off, as well as additional days for holidays, field trips, or necessary breaks in order for me to keep my sanity! I learned a long time ago that what is learned from books is not as important as what we learn from life. Our kids are like sponges and they are learning 24/7 - and the thing that concerns us the most is the molding and shaping of their character.

Now I plan to send this blog out into the world - I hope there is someone out there who can find some encouragement from what I write.

In His Care ~ Beth ~