I Survived My First Curriculum Fair

So, I attended my very first homeschool curriculum fair Friday evening. Thankfully, I had two very "seasoned" homeschooling moms "escort" me. I'll tell you now, if there are any parents that are thinking of homeschooling, start doing research NOW and pray about it NOW. Even if your child is still in diapers! There is no way anyone can go into one of those fairs without feeling overwhelmed; no matter how much planning you do before hand (and I'm a planner!). I am so thankful that I did a lot of research before hand, reads lots of different books on homeschooling and did lots and lots of praying! Still, I walked away a bit confused and not so sure of the plan that I had before even walking through the doors. I did purchase a few items. (I love the Rod and Staff books!)

We have come to one conclusion for this coming school year; we are going to have fun and not stress! That's probably the only decision we have made so far! I was reminded over and over that evening at the fair, that Anthony is so young, have fun now while you can. We will continue to concentrate on letters and numbers this coming year, but no Latin until he can read. :)

In my opinion, our society (even the parents of the children) wants our children to grow up physically and mentally waaaaaaaay too fast. This is part of the beauty of homeschooling, we don't have to go with the flow of what everyone else is doing. We get to do our own thing. Before I know it though, it will be my turn to be stressing about pre-algerbra. For now, I'll take "stresssing" (not really) about our numbers, colors and letters. God bless the Mom's that are going before me. They have been such a wealth of information and a huge blessing!

So, after I recovered from my first homeschool curriculum fair, we headed out on Sunday to PA to watch the STIHL U.S. Pro-Lumberjack competition. We had no idea that they held them on the east coast. We had always enjoyed watching it on T.V. It was so cool! Anthony enjoyed the spring board competition the most. One guy even fell when his springboard came loose, but was not hurt. He also enjoyed running around with the other children, playing with wood that had been hand cut the day prior during the qualifying, and shaking hands with the Penn State Nittany Lion that was walking around. The event was held on the Penn State Mont Alto campus. Apparently, they have a great Forestry program.

This past week, we had a bit of nice weather so Anthony enjoyed some painting outside. He enjoys painting way better than coloring. We also got a cool little ressurection set. I read from the bible how Jesus was crucified and rose on the 3rd day. He enjoyed playing with the set. We took turns, being the angel, Jesus, Mary, etc. "He has risen, indeed!" As usual though, when we were done, the people (even our risen Savior) ended up with his Thomas Trains and even took rides on the cargo trains. (Boys...) However, the set is now safely back on the table for display or for telling the story again if he wants.

I also had Anthony practice writing by tracing the letters for a thank you letter. Recently I read, (Educating the Wholehearted Child; my current "go-to" homeschooling book) if you are going to make your children practice writing, might as well make them do it so it is actually producing something. Recently, a good friend of ours gave Anthony some gifts. So, I went to http://www.worksheetworks.com/ and talked to Anthony about what his letter should say and typed up the thank you letter, printed it off and then Anthony sat down and traced the letters. It was a little long for a 4 year old, so he would work on it, go play and then come back and work on it some more. He did this until it was finished. He was very proud of himself, as I was. We decided that this letter was his writing for the whole week!

Happy Easter everyone! He is risen!