I am exhausted so I am not sure how long with post will be or even how much sense it will make but I have had this on my list of things to do for way too long now.
Today was my day off and we decided to put our yearly pass to use and headed over the Detroit Zoo. We had a picnic lunch and skipped around to some of our favorite exhibits. It was a beautiful day weather wise and it was an extremely wonder family time. Olena was in a great mood and we had fun. Tonight at the dinner table, she wanted to say Grace..."tank you Lord por my pamily, bless my pood and tank you for no crying today - amen - lets eat" (thank you Lord for my family, bless my food and thank you for no crying today) Though I would never think to say it during our meal time Grace I have to admit I am thankful for no crying today too :) It has been a pretty yucky couple of weeks. Olena has had a bit of an attitude problem, lots of crying fits, and potty accidents - which is absolutely out of her norm. She has been potty trained without incident for over a year now. Thankfully J and I sat down agreed to a set schedule and we both have been following it with great success these past few days. It may have also helped out lovely demon in disguise because her behavior has been a lot more positive these days.
She said at dinner tonight, "hey guess what guys? I love you and I am a good girl!" it is heartwarming to see your children when they are so genuinely happy. It brings peace to your heart knowing you are on the right path as a parent!
We had a garage sale over the weekend. It turned out amazing! Thank you to my wonderful momma and dad! Dad donated a ton of tools which was a huge hit for the men and Mom worked it for my on Thur and Fri while I was at the office. We pulled in nearly $500, which was great. We will be headed out for our reunion with the Kissacks and Whites this fall so this makes a nice vacation fund! It also cleared out a ton of clutter from my house! what more could a mom want?
I have started my research on home schooling and all I can say is OVERWHELMING! good grief there is such an overload of information I am beside myself. I have decided to stop in my tracks and go back to square one. I put together a binder and I am working on some organization that can help me to condense and break down what I have . I ordered a bunch of catalogs too so those have been flooding my mail box this past week and my eyes are now crossed from reading all of this. I have worked preschool time into our current schedule though I am not following any curriculum at this time. I am working on some basics...letters, counting, colors, phonics, etc. She is not much of a sit down and do worksheets kid so I have to be a bit more creative by playing games and using hands on projects they also can't last too long. She can work on one thing for about 20-25 minutes before I start to lose her interest. I just stop at this point because I know she is not retaining any of the learning points in what we are doing. It is a ton of work and lots of information to process but the more we research and learn the more satisfied and pleased we are with our decision to home school. It is not something that neither of us had ever considered before we adopted. We don't come from a home schooling family, in fact I don't think there is a single person in our combined families that even agrees with our decision. There are many factors that have lead us to this choice and I know it is not something that everyone believes in but it is what we want for our family and our children and we feel very blessed to be doing so.
I will be honest and say I hate dealing with people's reactions when they find out you are home schooling. It gets so quiet...and then they say some of the most ridulous things. The strangest and most common comments that we get is "Oh OK, so you will home school her for now, and then put her in public school a little later?" and the good ole standby "how will you socialize her" I love when this comes from the parents who kids are running around the party acting like animals, not listening to their mother, and don't have a single manner in their body. When did home school involve locking my kid in the house and never letting them out. And how does your kid socialize? He/she sits in a classroom with 20 other peers of the same age, for hours with little "every day interaction". ggggrrrr....
I remember hearing other families vent about adoption comments they would hear from others, thankfully I have never encountered any of those so I guess this just comes with the territory!
Like I said earlier, I am tired and seemly a bit cranky too. So on a good note, good night and I am now off my soapbox!
Today was my day off and we decided to put our yearly pass to use and headed over the Detroit Zoo. We had a picnic lunch and skipped around to some of our favorite exhibits. It was a beautiful day weather wise and it was an extremely wonder family time. Olena was in a great mood and we had fun. Tonight at the dinner table, she wanted to say Grace..."tank you Lord por my pamily, bless my pood and tank you for no crying today - amen - lets eat" (thank you Lord for my family, bless my food and thank you for no crying today) Though I would never think to say it during our meal time Grace I have to admit I am thankful for no crying today too :) It has been a pretty yucky couple of weeks. Olena has had a bit of an attitude problem, lots of crying fits, and potty accidents - which is absolutely out of her norm. She has been potty trained without incident for over a year now. Thankfully J and I sat down agreed to a set schedule and we both have been following it with great success these past few days. It may have also helped out lovely demon in disguise because her behavior has been a lot more positive these days.
She said at dinner tonight, "hey guess what guys? I love you and I am a good girl!" it is heartwarming to see your children when they are so genuinely happy. It brings peace to your heart knowing you are on the right path as a parent!
We had a garage sale over the weekend. It turned out amazing! Thank you to my wonderful momma and dad! Dad donated a ton of tools which was a huge hit for the men and Mom worked it for my on Thur and Fri while I was at the office. We pulled in nearly $500, which was great. We will be headed out for our reunion with the Kissacks and Whites this fall so this makes a nice vacation fund! It also cleared out a ton of clutter from my house! what more could a mom want?
I have started my research on home schooling and all I can say is OVERWHELMING! good grief there is such an overload of information I am beside myself. I have decided to stop in my tracks and go back to square one. I put together a binder and I am working on some organization that can help me to condense and break down what I have . I ordered a bunch of catalogs too so those have been flooding my mail box this past week and my eyes are now crossed from reading all of this. I have worked preschool time into our current schedule though I am not following any curriculum at this time. I am working on some basics...letters, counting, colors, phonics, etc. She is not much of a sit down and do worksheets kid so I have to be a bit more creative by playing games and using hands on projects they also can't last too long. She can work on one thing for about 20-25 minutes before I start to lose her interest. I just stop at this point because I know she is not retaining any of the learning points in what we are doing. It is a ton of work and lots of information to process but the more we research and learn the more satisfied and pleased we are with our decision to home school. It is not something that neither of us had ever considered before we adopted. We don't come from a home schooling family, in fact I don't think there is a single person in our combined families that even agrees with our decision. There are many factors that have lead us to this choice and I know it is not something that everyone believes in but it is what we want for our family and our children and we feel very blessed to be doing so.
I will be honest and say I hate dealing with people's reactions when they find out you are home schooling. It gets so quiet...and then they say some of the most ridulous things. The strangest and most common comments that we get is "Oh OK, so you will home school her for now, and then put her in public school a little later?" and the good ole standby "how will you socialize her" I love when this comes from the parents who kids are running around the party acting like animals, not listening to their mother, and don't have a single manner in their body. When did home school involve locking my kid in the house and never letting them out. And how does your kid socialize? He/she sits in a classroom with 20 other peers of the same age, for hours with little "every day interaction". ggggrrrr....
I remember hearing other families vent about adoption comments they would hear from others, thankfully I have never encountered any of those so I guess this just comes with the territory!
Like I said earlier, I am tired and seemly a bit cranky too. So on a good note, good night and I am now off my soapbox!
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