I enjoy New Year’s Eve and Day. The whole idea of starting fresh, is so encouraging. Remember all those things you were going to do last year and didn’t get to… well, here is a new beginning a chance to start fresh.
New Year’s Eve at our house is always fun, we have special finger food and treats and we watch movies and stay up late. The kids all got into their pajama’s and brought their sleeping bags downstairs. I had bought a New Year’s cracker set that had the crackers with the silly crowns in them and a little trinket. It also came with balloons and noise makers. Oh, I wished I had my camera handy Joel and Hannah had never used the noise makers that uncurl when you blow on them. They were so funny. Actually, a video camera would have been fantastic, Joel’s whole body and facial expression got into it. He had Dave and I laughing so hard it was wonderful.
I have great hopes for this year. Joel will finish chemo and then we can concentrate on healing and strengthening him. We will have a new little one in February. We will finally finish off the attic bedroom (that’s a whole other post). We have plans for a big garden and maybe even chickens this year. We’d have to build a coop first so it might have to wait a year.
We have decided to turn over a new leaf with our homeschool. We have traditionally run our school from Sept. to Aug. doing light schooling through the summer. However, in Aug. our funds are always on the lower side, when I need to buy new curriculum. Unlike in the end of the year when we have a bit of an influx of funds. So we decided to start our new school year in January.
Of course, the kids aren’t ready to graduate to the next level so we are going to try and squeeze a school year and a 1/2 in one year. It will present some challenges especially where Joel is concerned. Some of you may remember the post in which I shared how Joel’s Neuropsych assessmentwent. In many ways we are starting all over with school, he scored terribly on his cognitive skills so we will be concentrating on those. As well as physiotherapy to help with motor control and balance.
Savannah over at Ramblings of a Christian Mom, recently wrote a post about Homeschooling and a helpful site called 1+1+1=1. I will be using some of her ideas with Hannah and Joel and even Joshua for a few things as he needs work on his fine motor skills. I have recently read on a few different sites about having a letter of the week that shows up in various activities. For example, A, you then may have the memory verse, Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Then you might have the song of the week be Amazing Grace. You study about Aardvarks and the children learn some facts about Africa. This wouldn’t be the only curriculum you would have but it is a fun way to learn some new things and bring up the letter of the week over and over again with the little ones.
Well most of the activities at 1+1+1=1 are below Elijah and Taliah I thought that I can still adapted some of it to them the memory verses can be copy work for improving penmanship and the songs are good for all of us to learn. We are all excited about this new venture. I thought I may blog more often about what we are doing school wise. I have never before been specifically concerned about cognitive function as I am now with Joel but as we try new things I thought I would like to record our progress here, as well as what the other kids are up to.
Not to worry I will still write about all the other happenings of our family, as well as, my musings and pondering of life in general. We have set lofty goals for this coming year but I always feel it is better to aim too high then too low. Blessings to you all and may 2011 be an incredible year for us all.
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