Wow! On May 23 my son passed through the major milestone of high school graduation. We were surprised to find that there were so many ways to graduate as a homeschooled child. Many have private home celebrations and others graduate with their local homeschool group. We decided that our son would graduate with the state homeschool organization, because we wanted the official diploma and liked the idea of a traditional graduation. NCHE (North Carolina Home Education) Association put on a wonderful graduation at the convention in Winston-Salem last weekend. They were very well organized and everything went smoothly and easily. They ended up splitting the graduates into two different graduations, since there were so many of them (about 300 were there in person -- even more received their diplomas through the mail).Since our son is now an adult, he will go by his real name on this blog for now on. Here is Timothy in his cap and gown waiting in the hallway to come into the graduation hall.
Isn't he HANDSOME?!The way NCHE conducts their graduation is with an adult commencement speaker and then each set of parents are called forward to present the diploma to their graduate. It was lovely, warm and family friendly -- just as a homeschool graduation should be. 
Here dh is handing over the diploma.
My poor husband, David, got caught in the back. This picture does not depict what an important impact my husband has had on our homeschool. I am so grateful for his support and agreement that our children be homeschooled. It has been filled with sacrifice, lifestyle change/expectations, and two years that were particularly hard financially to keep me at home instead of in the workforce. However, he never wavered in his belief that we were doing what was best for Timothy (and later our other children). THANK YOU, DAVID! Here's to 12 more years of homeschooling and a great 10 years under our belts.When the graduates were filing out of the hall, Timothy threw his cap to Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer was a very happy boy with the cap on. He is our most likely next graduate in 11 years. Goldilocks is supposed to go before him, but with her severe academic delays, she may be held back a year or more somewhere along the line.
A few family shots ~
Grandpa Dean, the photographer, was also in attendance but is always on the opposite side of the camera!After graduation, we went to dinner at the Sweet Potatoes Well Shut My Mouth restaurant. It was delicious! Hurray, Son! We are so proud of you!Blessings, Dawn
We are back from the homeschool convention in Winston-Salem. I have so much to tell and even more that I need to process in my thinking. What a unique weekend. I spent half of my time moving my teen through another step toward adulthood by way of the ritual of high school graduation and the other part of the weekend drooling shopping for all of next year's books. I will share about my son's fantastic graduation on Friday. I need to let all the thoughts and emotions of the day sink in a bit. Also, I did not get to take a single picture. However, my Dad the photographer did take many photos. I just have to get him to give them to me in a form I can blog! LOL!So for today's entry, I am focusing on books. In many ways, books explain the huge change that is taking place in my life. There will be no high school books next year! WOW! WOW!!! wow.... A new chapter in our life with books that is a great relief and a bit of a shock. Next year all of my homeschooled kids will be within a grade level or two of each other. And next year there will only be one severely delayed child to teach ....Is this stack of crisp books not one of the most exciting things you have ever seen? LOL! So filled with promise .... my head is thinking, "I made all the right choices in books for this coming year ... there will be no tears over this or that. School is going to be GREAT!" Oh, how the mind plays tricks. I know there will be tears and that these books do not hold all the answers. However, I do think I have some great finds here! There are some oldies but goodies, some changes and some additions.
We are sticking with the next year of SOTW. We all loved it last year, and we are looking forward to the Middle Ages. (However, I do need to reopen school to complete the Romans for one week before we can crack the new books.)
I love this series of books! They will make a great addition to SOTW. I have a few more to buy to cover some of the great people of this time period.
I am really excited about this little book. My ds has been demanding that I teach him Latin for the last few months. He got this notion from playing with other homeschool kids while waiting at his sister's ballet class. That's what I get for letting him hang out with homeschooled children. LOL! Anyhow, I found this gentle program that just teaches some words and connections of Latin without getting into the grammar. Hopefully, this will satisfy him for another year while he gets older and I get braver.
Next, we have these lovely copy work books from Queens homeschool supply. I love Charlotte Mason's view on copy work but had trouble sticking with it last year. I'm hoping that the easy layout of these books will keep us on task. Also, copying down proper manners can't hurt any either!
We are switching to Horizon Math from Miquon Math. I am really looking forward to the switch. The kids for the most part tested in the middle of grades, and Horizon breaks their workbooks into semesters so you can start in the middle if you wish.
We are sticking with Explode the Code. These books are very popular in my home.
We also will be moving from Spellingcity.com to A Reason for Spelling .... I really enjoyed this series with my big teen and will be returning to it for the little ones. I just can't keep focused on sending them to the computer. A little plug for Rainbow Resource -- I have loved this company for the past 10 years. They are always so helpful and inexpensive. Most recently, they saved me lots of money by figuring out that my teaching manuals from the big teen were not outdated and could be reused with new spelling workbooks. They were more than happy to call over to the warehouse and compare copyright dates and pages. We also intend to keep up with Five in a Row (FIAR) this year. I'm planning to start a FIAR field trip group in the fall. This should provide the socialization that my Tom Sawyer craves and be a safe, low-key environment for my two special needs kiddos (of which Tom Sawyer is one). Now to think about those Workboxes! Hmm!! Do I really want to add that into my homeschool? I do want my Tom Sawyer to become independent as soon as he can because I know that he is going to need to separate much of his studies from his slower sisters in the near future. However, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I like most of the way we homeschool now. Hmm. I also shy away from trends .... Is this a trendy new way of teaching or the answer to my prayer? Much to ponder ...Blessings, Dawn
I am recording the Big Teen's high school summaries. This one is for his algebra. The Big Teen learned algebra in the 12th grade. For Algebra I, he used Teaching Textbooks. I really liked this program. It was very well laid out and helped him work somewhat independently. Certainly, a child without special needs would have no trouble using this program independently. In addition to Teaching Textbooks, we used several algebra computer games and drills on the Internet. He also enjoyed the Living Math book, A Gebra Named Al. He survived Algebra and learned enough to have a general understanding of the concepts. It was by far the toughest course for him to get through in his entire high school career. We are both so glad he is all done!Blessings, Dawn
I have struggled for some time now to establish a schedule for our family. The main problem in doing this is that every day is different in our home. I kept getting stuck with the time thing. We can't do the same thing at 10 am every day because we are not in the same place at 10 am every day, or any other particular time either. We are not a family that has the luxury of staying home day after day. We have doctor/therapy appointments several days a week and, during Tomatis loops, every single day for hours on end. Then there are the extracurricular classes. This year each child had a choice of one class outside the home. We often find ourselves struggling through a hectic day in which I have to force one of my children through many transitions. Did I mention that transitions are very, very difficult for two of my kiddos? I finally struck on a schedule chart that is working for us.Each night I check the weather and calendar for the next day. Then I pull out the 36 cards that I have made so far and put them in order on our schedule for that day. During breakfast we review the plans for today. During the day, the kids can go back to check the chart. It is really helping them know what is coming next. It really helps to reduce reducing fussing about what they had thought up to do versus what we need to do. Everyone is much happier and things are going much more smoothly. 
I made them by using cardstock and putting Velcro on the back. This was so simple and cheap. I think it cost me $3.00 for everything.Blessings, Dawn
This was by far one of my son's least favorite subjects. Writing and typing come very hard to my dear son. Everything is difficult about it, from the thought process to the spelling to the cramps it gives his hands to write anything more than a sentence. However, it is important to be able to put your thoughts to paper. Listed below are some of the ways we found to help him express himself through writing. - Writing thank you notes
- Small reports of famous people: Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Alexander Hamilton, and Jack the Ripper
- Emailing friends
- Filling out surveys for his volunteer work
- Mini reports for Government and World History
- 5 book reports
- 8 Today in My Life reports
- Maintaining his blog
He also completed the Apples to Apples Spelling and Handwriting without Tears - Cursive with his occupational therapist. Blessings, Dawn
We had a fun time going to Education Day at the Tourists Baseball Field. This small, mountain town, minor-league baseball team has a history to it, having hosted some of baseball's most influential stars. Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Ty Cobb, Warren Spahn, and even Babe Ruth have graced this field with their prowess. Cal Ripken Jr. was a bat boy there in the early to mid 70s, while his father managed the Club. The famous American author, Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward, Angel and You Can't Go Home Again), was a bat boy back in 1915. Portions of the classic film, "Bull Durham," starring Kevin Costner were filmed at this baseball field during two days in October 1987. I was unsure on how the kids would do at a baseball game with all the noise. Once they had the hang of what was going on and we moved to a calmer section, they enjoyed it. We were lucky to find a calmer section between a group of homeschoolers from a different county and a group from a nursing home. They were not nearly as wild as the public school kids were in the first section we sat in. Interestingly, the public school kids were being riled up by their teachers. I guess they were trying to wear them out or something.
I was surprised how hot it was in the stands. I had brought a picnic lunch of organic hot dogs, potato chips, and fruit, but I ended up buying a snow cone for them to share.
They liked meeting Teddy, the Tourists' mascot.
They also enjoyed hitting a few balls of their own. The little educational packets they handed out were pretty good. The packets were mostly math and were too hard to concentrate on there, but we did learn some from them. I was proud of them for making it through five innings and behaving themselves.Blessings, Dawn
