Welcome!!

WELCOME to the first edition of The Shelby Academy Times!!
Yup, we moved here. Homeschoolblogger, as nice as the idea was, was such a pain in the *%^# that I decided to move my blog. I hope this works better. In case you hadn't checked out the other blog, I am re-posting some stuff. If you've already read them, feel free to skip :) I'm hoping that the photos are visible here.

May 8
We have 3 children: Kep (7 yo), Tes (3 yo) and Reg (19 mos). We've been homeschooling our oldest for the last 2 years. I looked and looked for a good school for my child and came to a conclusion that the best school is AT HOME! Especially for a unique, high energy child like Kep! I think Tes would do fine in a traditional school setting, but why settle for 'fine' when you can 'excel'? According to California state law, Kep is in first grade, but he is finishing some 2nd grade curriculum while in other subjects he is already doing 3rd grade stuff. He loves to read and is very much interested in paleontology. Recently he went to a lecture in paleobotany, which we thought would bore us to death, but he was excited. To each his own.... Tes has been wanting to 'do school' with us, so she's doing some kindergarten work. She writes very well and she can read simple words. She also counts very well, except for occasional twenty-tens. Tes loves to sing and dance. Reg hasn't started 'official' school yet, but he is working on his ABC song. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine.

This is an odd time to start a school related blog, but I felt motivated so why not

I hope to update this often, but with three little ones, I can only be optimistic.

I'm also working on my own craft project, which takes up my very limited free time. But I'd like to update the project on this blog as well.

May 9
Little more about what we do...
So, I thought I'd write a bit about what we do here at Shelby Academy.

Before I go on, just a little warning. If you are not a homeschooler, you may find the following info too detailed. In which case, you can just disregard the rest and I'll see you tomorrow. But I do want to let ya'll know that homeschooling is awesome and I'd highly recommend it to anyone with half a brain. It really doesn't require so much out of you. I often encounter people who tell me that I must have so much patience to be able to homeschool. The truth is I DON'T. It is only by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit within I can accomplish the task set before me. Praise God!

When we first started to homeschool, I went through dozens of curricula to find 'the right one' for our son. In the end I chose Abeka. For the first grade material, I stuck with the curriculum very strictly. But as we progressed to the second grade, I found that Kep was beginning to get distracted. After much thought I came to conclude that he is simply bored to tears! Why would I bore him at home when I can simply do so at any public school! So I decided to augment a bit here and there. First we began to double up on arithmetic, spelling, reading, and phonics. Then it was apparent that phonics was just tedious (after all he was already reading at 6th grade level, why should I stick to long and short vowel sounds, right?) so we decided to do a whole week's worth in one day (I'm so bad at just dropping it, aren't I?). It was amazing how much Kep improved when I actually gave him more to do! I believe most kids in school are just not challenged enough and that's why they fall behind, because THEY ARE BORED!!!!

While we moved forward with Abeka 2nd grade curriculum, I began further research on different methods of homeschooling. For now, I think I'm going to go with the Classical method. I bought a book by Susan Wise Bauer, Well Trained Mind, and I'm totally sold! If you are homeschooling or thinking of homeschooling, I'd definitely recommend reading this book!

Well, our lunch break is over, I better go back and finish school!

May 15
Sorry about not updating more often! As you all know, life happens FAST!
On Wednesdays I go to a women's bible study at a nearby church. It's a great series by Beth Moore and I really enjoy it. But this means that we don't do school in the morning! Not only that, we have a cubscout meeting on wednesdays too AND my husband, Dev, is the den leader! A few weeks ago Dev was promoted and that meant he'd be spending more time than he'd like on getting accustomed to his new position. His boss flew in from LA last week to orient him, so he had to miss Kep's cubscout meeting. Fortunately, I had planned on having a den picnic at a nearby park, so all I had to do was to bring everything to the park, start the grill and cook some food :) no biggie, right? especially with three children running around, this should be a breeze.... heheheh. Thankfully, many parents pitched in to help once we were at the park, so it worked out great. But no time to blog. Oh and I DID do school in between all the stuff.

Thursday, we did school as usual in the morning, but in the evening Kep and Tes go to AWANA. It's a bible club kind of thing for kids ages 3 and up. Each week the kids would memorize a verse or two or three and earn patches and prizes. Last week was THE last week of AWANA for the school year, so Kep crammed in last 5 verses in the book!


Friday was AWANA Grandprix. It's just like Pinewood Derby they do in boy scouts.

So Kep brought his car that he made for the cubscouts. With great luck, Kep's car kept winning all the heats and he ended up winning his division. Then the winner from each division competed for the impromptu grand prize (it wasn't planned so there was no trophy for this) Again Kep's car won! Thank goodness, for he's not the greatest loser in the world.

Saturday, we went to see Ice Age2. It was just as we expected. Fun. The kids had a great time, except Reg wanted to take a stroll during the movie. But he did great all in all.

Sunday was Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers!!!

Well, I got some pretty cool drawings from the kids, and from Dev, I got some cool pearl strands. Yes I said strands and I meant it. They are NOT necklaces. They are strands to be strung by ... ME! ME? ME?!?!?!!? Can I be THAT creative?? hmmmm. I don't know, but they are pretty! I couldn't really do them justice in my photo taking, but I'm putting some pictures for you to see. I'm looking forward to making some really cool necklaces and earrings. Dev, knowing my craft ability(?) did give me one pearl necklace that is already strung together.

The last picture is the promised update on my craft project.

This is the cross stitch project I'm currently at work! I saw this pattern and thought I just had to make it for my very good friend who is expecting a child in a few months! I'm hoping to finish this before the baby is born How ambitious am I? I'd never really cross stitched in the past, but I am really enjoying it. The gift was a surprise but now I guess she'll find out here.

So that's what's up around here, these days. Still gotta finish history with Kep. We're studying Mohenjodaro today, I think....