Finished my first sweater!

I'm pretty proud that I didn't use a pattern and it all came out great! Everything is even and everything fits!

Knitting without a net: Child's Sweater!

The front of the sweater is complete!

Working on the back now, then the scary part- SLEEVES! I've NEVER made a sleeve in my life and I have no pattern!

My sweater progress

Here we are at the front of the sweater. I am not using a pattern. We'll see how it turns out! I am knitting without a net!

Here is the front of the sweater as of last night. Coming along pretty well!

Knitting my first sweater...

I'm going to risk it and not use a pattern! This will be a cable-knit sweater for Teddy. Wish me luck!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Being silly together

Being Silly with my kids. We love singing and being silly!

I finally learned to KNIT!

I've been working for over a year to learn how to knit. I just couldn't give up because I just love everything that you can make from knitting. Crocheting came so easy to me and I just couldn't understand why I couldn't understand knitting. Well, perseverance is the key to learning how to do something difficult! I teach that to my children all the time and I practice it in my own life. So, I'll share my first knitting project and a couple of Crochet things I've made recently!

My first knitting project. It's a cowl and I love that there are so many ways to wear it! This took about a day and a half because I had to take a break after running out of yarn. It really should only take a day.

--------------------

I also crocheted a dress for my daughter's special doll. She also got a little stuffing because Annie had loved all the stuffing out of her. The dress took me about 2 hours to make. I watched a movie while making it and it was finished at the end!

The Dragon was for Teddy. We call him Drake. It took about a day to make him.

Still snowed in....Cabin fever anyone?

We have been trapped indoors since Sunday here in Georgia. We didn't get a ton of snow, only about 3.5 inches, but that was enough to trap the entire metro Atlanta population in their homes for 5 days. Atlanta's public safety department doesn't have enough equipment to deal with ice and snow in Georgia. I guess the state doesn't find it necessary as it snows so infrequently here. Well, it snowed enough this time to paralyze a city! Even large trucks were unable to drive these roads to deliver food. So many grocery stores are completely out of food! It's been crazy. The mail trucks haven't run, trash trucks haven't picked up trash, and many gas stations have not been able to get their fuel deliveries!

My husband is always prepared to something like this so we've been alright. We keep at least a three month supply of food at all times. The problem for us is finding a way to keep from getting cabin fever. It was fine for the first three days, but slowly my children have been going insane. Alex and Annie don't understand why they have to continue with their school schedule while Danielle doesn't have to go to her school. Well, life goes on, my dears! This education train must keep going down the track!

Of course breaking the tension that being trapped indoors causes has been the hardest part. My kids want to go outside, but they are Georgia babies and not used to cold weather like this. I am not to thrilled with how much laundry piles up while playing in the snow. They can pile up two weeks of clothing in one day! Of course if they stay inside they tend to turn on each other! So there have been many instances where they have chosen to go into their own rooms to be alone without being sent there! That is unusual. lol We are on day six now of being in the house because I have been unwilling to drive on the roads. It's finally getting warm enough to melt the ice off the roads. So, we may venture out today!

Wish us luck!

Hello, new year!

Well, 2010 was a crazy year! I started homeschooling my children right after Christmas in 2009. I had not been satisfied with the quality of the education offered in the county public schools for some time. Much of the time was spent talking about behavior and teaching core values, that I did not always agree with nor want the schools to teach my child, rather than educating them. There are things that I believe are a parent's job to teach and the school crossed the line one too many times. Finally I chose that I would home school them and offer all the love and guidance they need.

It has been an ongoing struggle trying to find the right curriculum to use, schedule to follow, and how to get lots of the socialization that they need in the right kind of environment. It has also been a struggle getting the children to adapt to the new way to school.

It was easy for them to be lazy, pretend they don't understand the work, and disappear among the other students in their class while they were in public school. At home, though, they had to get used to the idea that I know what they are capable of. I don't accept anything less than the best they can do. I don't expect anything out of the realm of their capabilities, but I ask for the best they can do. It was a big struggle with Danielle (15) who had spent her entire life in public school. She began to reject the system right away and unfortunately for us, we had no choice but to let her go back to school or risk her falling too far behind. It was heartbreaking, but we had to try.

During the summer of 2010 I discovered a new virtual school called Georgia Cyber Academy. They are a state funded virtual public school that uses an outstanding curriculum (www.k12.com) that was developed using state standards and performance test results from all over the country. The curriculum uses all the best learning tools- text, computer-based learning, live classes and even extra learning websites for more enrichment. It has an online schedule and a way to track the progress of your child with a daily (or weekly) checkpoint in most of the classes. I really like the curriculum, though I really find the live classes unnecessary for my children.

One of the biggest issues over the course of this year has been attending the live classes while trying to stay on track with our schedule. My children work at a slower pace, trying to assure they understand each lesson before we move on. The only issue I have with this program is that the schedule is not as flexible as I would like, and the live classes are required. This puts too much pressure on my children. It also leaves no time for the very important socialization that my children need. It got so bad that I nearly pulled them out of the school! I decided to finish this year up with Georgia Cyber Academy and next year I will try the local co-op. This co-op meets twice a week for core classes and some enrichment classes. I really think this will help break the monotony of the schedule and give them regular time with other kids outside of the home.

Along with the co-op we will continue with Alex's cub scouts, Annie's softball and Girl Scouts and we will be attending church regularly. Hopefully this will make 2011-2012 more fun for everyone!