B Is for Homeschool Budget ~ Blogging through the Alphabet

I have gotten lots of questions over the last 20 years of homeschooling about how much it costs to homeschool. That is a question that has a different answer for every homeschooling family. There are many factors involved. We started homeschooling only one child and at our height were homeschooling four children, including a high school student. Now, we are homeschooling two high school students (one with special needs). Our yearly budget for homeschooling has been as high as $3,000 and as low as $500 depending on what the needs were in a given year and what our finances allowed. Generally, we have budgeted $500 per child, per year with a little bit more allowed for the teen years. We do not include sports fees and extracurricular activities (such as dance), educational vacations and weekend travel expenses, because we would provide these things even if our kids attended school.

This year our budget was $ 1,400 for two high school students. Here is how we did.

• Co-Op Classes ~ Sign Language II for the entire school year and one semester of Photography plus Art Exploration classes ~ $492
• Field Trips not including food purchased ~ $100
• Subscription Boxes ~ We are trying three months of Eureka Crates from Kiwi Crates and have been doing Universal Yums boxes this entire school year ~ $202. These supplement Dean's Industrial Arts, Math and World Geography credits. 
• Math Curriculum ~ I bought three this year! Math had some bumpy mistakes and missteps this year, but we are on even footing now ~ $309.
• Other Curriculum ~ I was able to pull from my own shelves for the most part this year. I did order several World Geography books from Memoria Press and bought Geography through Art from a used book store. I also bought Learning Language Arts through Literature (The Gold Book), Story Starters by Karen Andreola, and The Story of Science: Newton at the Center ~ $108.
• Science Kits ~ $68.
• Other Books ~ I buy books throughout the year from used book stores, Amazon and library sales to supplement our studies and reading programs ~ $53.

Total ~ $1,332.00

We are currently on target and I am dripping in curriculum and books that will more than sustain us through the rest of the year. Dear daughter does want me to purchase a Latin program for her. She wants it desperately. We found one from Memoria Press that she likes and I plan to buy it for her as a reward when she completes two more credits...giggle, giggle. That will top us off at just over $1,400 for the year.

 

Blessings, Dawn

S Is for Symphony

We had the pleasure of going to the symphony this week. Our local symphony orchestra did a special school show that cost only $4 a ticket. I couldn't pass that up. The show was called Musicalympics and they portrayed how music and sports are related to each other.

It was a great show and special opportunity for my kids. Dean really appreciated how professional the orchestra was and remarked that, if you closed your eyes, the music sounded like it had been professionally recorded. But then, when you opened your eyes, the music was being played live right in front of you. He loved that. It's really hard for him to listen to poorly played music. We sat in the spacious balcony, which was a relief for my sensory-affected son as the music was not too loud up there.

Dear son takes his mission to avoid the camera seriously these days, LOL!

We heard several great pieces including:

• "Star Spangled Banner" by Frances Scott Key
• "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud
• "Fugue in C Minor" by Bach
• "Entrance of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik
• "Overture to the Bartered Bride" by Bedrich Smetana
• "Olympic Fanfare" by John Williams

We are going to follow up our adventures at the symphony reviewing The Story of the Orchestra and listening to "The Best of John Williams," parts one and two (found on YouTube). John Williams wrote the music to Harry Potter and Star Wars! My kids were very excited to hear about that.

I am joining ABC blogging with ~ 

Blessings, Dawn

R Is for Reflections and Radiance

All of the pictures and video clips are from Anne and Dean's most recent dance showcase. I could only post short clips because Blogger only allows 100 megabyte films.

This is going to be mainly a reflections post with a bit of radiance thrown in for good measure. My kids are growing up by leaps and bounds. I am so blessed and thankful to be able to be at home with them, watching them grow to become these incredible people. Not only am I happy to be so blessed, but the older they get, the more I realize that my role as a parent is even more complicated than when they were babes. Babies are easy. They eat, sleep, and are adorable. But as they grow and go out into the world, they experience many dangers. Of course, I cannot protect them from every possible danger, but I can decrease the bad influences by keeping very close tabs on the people and activities that are influencing them. I am fully aware that every activity they do must be considered carefully to determine if it is useful, safe, and providing them necessary skills to become the people they want to be. Every moment is precious and I want to make sure that nothing is wasted. However, even more importantly, I want to make sure they are doing things that are truly giving them wings to fly into their futures as radiant people. 

Anne did a five minute solo that she choreographed herself. 

I wish I could show the entire dance. She nailed it!

Dance has certainly proven to be one of the activities that is having a profoundly positive influence on my kids' lives. It makes them radiantly happy. 

Most of these girls have only been dancing with pointe shoes for a few months.

I sometimes hear other mothers complain about the time and money it takes to raise kids. I just don't get it. I don't mind investing in them for a moment. What more important mission could I spend my days on than guiding my kids on the path to adulthood? 

So as they keep growing and stretching, I am watching carefully from the wings, ready to step in when guidance is needed. However, from my current view, they are flying high towards a radiant future.

Dean is the boy in the red shirt with gold tie. He's come a long way with physical therapy!

Blessings, Dawn

Q Is for Quest

We have grandparents in town this week. Our little city has had its fair share of rain, snow, wind, and cold this week so we have been on a Quest to find fun, mostly indoor, activities. Our city is nestled in the mountains and boasts a huge amount of outdoor activities. However, if you want to be indoors and don't want to shop or visit little art galleries, the list of activities gets much shorter. Mind you, I was raised in a large city, the capital of our country, in fact, so I am a bit spoiled when it comes to expectations.

We did find a fair amount of fun this week ~

Quest 1 ~ We went to a ceramics place to paint. We had taken my Mom there a few weeks ago and thought this set of grandparents would enjoy it. We all either painted ceramics or did glass fusion. Our creations will be fired and returned to us in about a week. It was a fun morning.

Grandpa made a mug with his signature cat face on it.

Anne made a tea set for her American Girl Dolls.

Grandma tried glass fusion. This flat piece will turn into a bowl.

My son has a myriad of facial expressions! He made a soda bottle.

I made a heart bowl. I can't wait to see them all shiny and finished.

Quest 2 ~ We ate out at three different restaurants. We had pizza, crepes, and chicken and waffles during their stay. That is a ton of eating out for our family in a week.

Quest 3 ~ We went to the aSHEmuseum. This is a relatively new museum in our city that is focused on women and how they live all around the world. I enjoyed the display that told about a day in the life of women in many different countries. Anne liked the puzzles and Dean liked the famous women's quote section. Tim liked the documentaries throughout the museum.

We can do it even if our clothes are way too big ~ Ha!

Quest 4 ~ We walked around downtown and visited a few art galleries. We also stopped in at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial historical site. 

See grandpa in the background? Photography runs deep in our family!

Will Dean be as tall as Thomas Wolfe when fully grown?

What a blessed week!

Blessings, Dawn

P Is for Performances, Painting and Passions

Our last week or two could be characterized by P words. We have gone to performances, followed our passions, and done tons of painting.

Performances ~ We were fortunate to be able to attend two school matinee performances at our city's largest theater. We saw the Yamato Drummers of Japan and Mummenshanz. Both shows were great and a unique experience for my kids.





Painting ~ We finished painting (all but the ceiling) of the guest room/office. Our daughter Goldilocks had this room when she lived at home. Changing the color of this room's walls helped solidify in our minds that Goldilocks probably will not be coming home. She is not healing significantly in her mental health placement and is not likely to ever be ready to live in a typical family setting during the rest of her childhood. She is 15 now and we are considering group home settings that may be able to help her work toward living independently in the future. It eventually may be determined that she needs to stay in long-term care even in adulthood. Out of the blue this past week, she informed me that her favorite place to live during the past two years since she ran away had been the psychiatric hospital! As she said, she hadn't had to make any choices in that setting and there were very few people that she had to deal with. This is not an option, of course. Can you imagine preferring to live in a mental health hospital? None of this is as easy as the words I have written. There are monthly boarding fees costing almost as much as our monthly mortgage (and that is for the inexpensive places), caseworkers' and doctor's opinions to consider, and the never-ending battle with insurance (currently, our caseworker is handling this). Consequently, painting this particular room was different from painting other rooms in our home. It was a healing experience for our family. There was a finality in it and a chance to move forward.

Learning how to install new baseboards

Honey Milk is the paint color we chose. It is calm and neutral.

Passions ~ We have been very busy following our passions this week. Anne and Dean are working very hard on their dances for the showcase next weekend. Anne has a solo. They have both received compliments from the director this week. I love watching them bloom! I know people complain all the time about the tween/teen years, but for the most part I am loving them. My kids are great and it is so exciting to see what they love and want to do with their lives.

Speaking of passions, I am very passionate about education and I am enjoying my job on the TOS review crew. I love receiving new curriculum to explore and then telling you all about it. Check out my latest review here.

Blessings, Dawn

O Is for Organizing, Occasion and On One's Own

Organizing ~ Our week was a whirlwind with very few photos taken. We started a host of house projects in which only one has currently been completed (ahem!). We are busy painting the guest bedroom/office. I am sure by next week I will have pictures to share of that accomplishment. The big surprise that interrupted our painting was a gift from the dance studio that our children attend. The studio was throwing out a ballet bar that they had used for more than 40 years. The kids really wanted it, and I told them they could have it before I realized it was 11 feet long! Fitting it into our family room meant redesigning two rooms and moving a host of furniture around. However, it worked out great, and the kids are thrilled to have for their very own a piece of their beloved dance studio. Dean said, "Mom think of the history and amazing dance moves this bar has seen." The change in our family room is not completely impromptu. We have been discussing for some time how the family room was only being used for Lego building. The other activities planned for that room, such as sewing and movie watching, just were not happening. Also, when we bought this house, we had to lay a new floor in the basement and had extra padding put under it so it would be safer for dancing. I then impulsively bought a huge sofa at a thrift store and that took away tons of space for dancing. The inheritance of the dance bar certainly forced our hand to make the space work for the kids' true passions.

A nice open space for dancing and a bar to hang onto during all of those pointe and ballet exercises.

A nice big space for Lego building. The huge drawer in the corner is filled with blocks.

We took our sectional apart and moved one piece into the laundry area for a comfortable folding area. The rest of it is here. You can see in the ballet bar photo above that we left the corner piece of the sofa to be pulled forward when the whole family is watching a movie.

Learning Occasion ~ We had our homeschooling review with another homeschool family this week. Because my kids have been studying the Narnia books series, we had high tea for our evening meal and presented some of what we had been learning.

The kids made tarts, and we also served asparagus, strawberries, tea sandwiches (cucumber with cream cheese and ham and cheese), cheese cubes, chocolates, petit fours, and Turkish Delight candies. Keeping with the Narnia theme, our friends brought Frog Jam, trifle, and sardines.

The kids presented their study of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They also talked about the other books they have studied in the Narnia series. Dean also showed off his robot that he has programmed to do all sorts of cool things. Anne performed her dance that she has been choreographing. She will be performing it as a solo in the dance showcase that is coming up. They both showed the twins how to swing dance. The twins presented their study of the Book of Kells.

On One's Own ~ Anne really wanted to do a solo in the upcoming showcase. She approached the director and asked if she could do one. The director asked her to show her music and what she had choreographed. Anne only had a little bit of the dance worked out but showed it to her. She was granted a solo and has to show the completed dance on Monday. Anne has choreographed and practiced her dance for over 15 hours this week on top of all of her normal dancing classes and practice. I am really proud of how hard she has worked for something she really wants to do. Her dance looks great. It is a lyrical and she is dancing to Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling.

I am joining ~

Blessings, Dawn

N Is for Nature Study ~ When the Neighbor's Tree Came for a Visit

Our nature study came to us this week. A very heavy rainstorm and high winds proved too much for the neighbor's tree. It fell into our yard, crushing the fence as it came. Thankfully, it missed the power lines and the house. The kids started to play in the tree before the rain even stopped.

The tree is enormous! Being a homeschool mom, I immediately saw the learning opportunities in this unexpected adventure. We set to work exploring/playing fort in the tree. We found that the tree had started to uproot from the saturated ground and then broke near the base. It was a violent break with many jagged tears.

The kids collected pine cones, bark and needles to help us determine what kind of conifer tree we had acquired. It turns out that it is a Norway Spruce. This tree has the potential to grow over 100 feet tall with a width of 40 feet. It can live to be over 100 years old. Upon measuring, our neighbor's tree was 60 feet tall and very wide as you can see in the picture with people standing in front of it (below).

Mostly, the kids just wanted to be in the tree. They really are enjoying it. The neighbor will be clearing it away and mending our fence in a few days. Until then, I am sure the children will delight in.

I am joining ~

Blessings, Dawn

K Is for Kumquats and Kiwis

I enjoy exposing my kids to new foods. We have had kiwi to eat before, but not in a long time. My children did not like kiwi when they were little so we rarely purchased it. I thought it was time to give it another try. To my delight, Anne thought the kiwi was good and ate one whole fruit by herself. Dean was still not a fan of the taste but thought it was a very beautiful fruit. He thought eating a slice occasionally might be okay.

After the kiwi, we decided to get really adventurous and try kumquat fruit. We watched several videos on how to eat it. Basically, you wash the tiny fruit, squeeze it to release the sweetness in the skin and then eat the whole rind and all. This fruit has a bite or zest to it. It was like eating an orange flavored lemon. I will let Dean's facial expression relay how they felt about this fruit. I don't think we will be running out to buy it again anytime soon!

I love watching my kids explore the world. It is fun when we are able to do so without even leaving home!

I am joining ABC blogging with

Blessings, Dawn

With JOYFUL Hearts ... Happy Three Kings Day!

If you have hung around my blog for any length of time, you probably know that one of the tenets of my child rearing philosophy is to  raise children with charitable hearts who give to others joyfully.

Acts 20:35
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’"


This Three Kings Day we spent the day spreading JOY to people in our community.

We made homemade marshmallows for one of the owners of the dance studio where my children dance. He loves marshmallows and it brought him lots of JOY to receive them.

We also took three of Anne's porcelain dolls that she no longer wanted and left them on playground benches in low-income neighborhoods. We left them with notes that said to take them home and love them. My kids love doing this particular act of kindness. They love to go back the next day and see that the toys are gone and think about the new child playing with them. We hope that each doll will bring some child great JOY!

Lastly, we made nine homeless kits. We dropped them off at our church to be handed out to homeless people on Sunday. Our church is in charge of serving breakfast in an urban park this weekend. In our city, homeless people often stand at  traffic lights to beg. We plan to make some more to keep in the car to give to homeless people at traffic lights.

If you want to make your own, here is a list with ideas of what you might include:

• Non-perishable food, such as crackers, hard candy, cookies, etc.
• Tissues
• Comb or hairbrush
• Hand wipes
• Gum
• Socks
• Gloves and hats
• Band-aids
• Fast food gift cards
• Toothpaste and toothbrush
• Most important ~ a card of encouragement and compassion

We had a wonderful day spreading JOY! I am joining ~ 

Blessings, Dawn