OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

First Week of School (and I lived to tell the tale)

 The first week of school was rather rough, primarily due to Moriah attending two classes at the high school. I have been on the road from 7 to 7:30 every morning driving her and then I only have 30 minutes to get Tori and Julia ready for school. JD should be able to resume normal work hours in about a week, and then he will relieve me of the morning run, which will make a huge difference in my mornings. Beyond the driving, it is Moriah's first experience in a class-room, which is also an adjustment. I placed her in the Honors English class and the teacher wasted no time piling on the homework; we are currently reading To Kill A Mockingbird out-loud for her class, it just happens to be one of my very favorites.

I think Tori and Julia are doing pretty well in their new classes. I'm not receiving much feed-back from either teacher yet, but I expect to as they are put in reading groups.

I decided that James and Ben are going to have to get up earlier and start working much earlier. I have been getting them up by 8, but they are seldom ready to school until 9:30. Since I'm back on the road to pick Moriah up at 10:30, there just isn't enough uninterrupted time. Starting Monday, they are going to be up by 7 and I'm expecting them to be ready for school by 8:00 when I return from the bus stop. Since they are James and Ben, I often have to remind them to get dressed, eat breakfast, do their chores, a few times each morning. I won't be doing that anymore; they are going to be ready by 8 or there won't be any privileges after school that day. I'm sure they will catch on rather quickly after a few painful days. 

Elijah and I started Handwriting Without Tears. I'm going to start him in the Hooked on Phonics first book also, because he already knows all the sounds of the letters. He loves "writing" with the sponge on the little chalk-board. 



So far, the adopting agency hasn't been able to submit Bella's packet to the Embassy because they need a letter from the Doctor explaining that a new lab is being sent to Kenya for analysis. For whatever crazy reason, the Dr. won't write the letter. So, this week I sent the clinic a request for an update and I have not heard back from them either. I really, really don't want this single piece of paper to delay the girls from coming home until November!

4 comments:

  1. Our Fall schedule is getting into full swing, as well. We will be starting our homeschooling on Monday. And . . . my kids will be expected to be ready to work at 8:00, as well. :)

    My 15 y.o. daughter is also taking 2 classes at the local high school, with it being her first time in a public school classroom. She goes for the last 2 hours of the day, and is able to ride the school bus home. (Can your daughter ride the bus to school?)

    I am pretty excited about our Fall Schedule, and just wrote a post about it yesterday. It's always fun to hear how other large homeschooling families work out their schedule.


    :) :) :)

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  2. Jenny please tell me you had all of that handwriting without tears stuff and that you didnt go buy it. I have it all & we do not use it like i thought we would. i am learning that scribbling & practicing is more useful then the handwriting without tears with mine. I have some of the workbooks if you might want them.

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  4. I am new to homeschooling so I was wondering if u would post what books you are using. Math , spelling those sort of books thanks

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