Another trip to KY.....

We were back up in KY for about a week......

It was quite interesting....
When I got back from spending 5 weeks in KY at the end of July (or was it the beginning of August? ...I can't remember) I kept getting the urge to offer to help Kristie start homeschooling Jordan, her son going into 7th grade. This urge, I didn't understand...she isn't planning on homeschooling. But it kept me up at night, waking me several times with that thought on my mind and deeply in my heart.

Let me back up a bit. Last year around Thanksgiving, my other sister Jennifer pulled her two younger kids out of PS (public school). Well, when I was up in KY for Thanksgiving....what did we talk about? homeschooling stuff, of course. (If you HS (homeschool) you completely understand, right?) Well when I was up at Christmas we spent all our time talking HS. At Easter....well you get the point. At some point in there, we would tell our other sister Kristie the wonders of homeschooling. And at some point her 11 year old started begging to be homeschooled. So Kristie borrowed some dvds and cds that I happened to have on HSing. And her and Jerry began talking and praying about it. Well of course I kept inquiring how their talks were going and then finally it got to a point where I felt I should quit inquiring, lest it become nagging about the subject and not simply inquiring.

Which leads me to the when I was up there for 5 weeks this summer and did not ask her once about it. Ok maybe I did ask her once. But it seemed that they decided not to HS. So even though Jennifer and I were constantly talking about homeschool stuff, we didn't 'inquire' about Kristie much.

Then I get back to Georgia and this feeling of offering to help her starts to overwhelm me. (Sometimes God is subtle, sometimes he keeps waking you up all night) I thought well, I was planning on sending her a thank you note....I will just add my offer in her thank you note, that if they decide to HS Jordan I would be willing to come back up there and help her with the first week, etc. But then God kept telling No, don't write her....offer it to her in an email or phone call. I thought that is odd.

Well later that day she Instant Messages me and we are chatting online. And I keep feeling that I should bring it up now. Now. But I don't want to be a nag, I am sure if she wanted more info or help or was even close to deciding she would have told me! But it persisted. Now. So, in our IM conversation I offered to drive back up to KY to help her get started in homeschooling if she wanted me to.

Well, her response shocked me. That night she was planning to take Jordan to orientation night at the school and sign up for his classes. She said that since I brought that up she felt that she and Jerry should talk and pray about it some more and they now are not going to orientation and not going to sign him up for classes that evening.

Wow, I guess that's why God wanted me bring it up now.

Anyways, they spent the next week trying to decide what to do with Jordan....public school, private school, homeschool, switch to a smaller public school?? They finally decided to give HS a go. She wanted me to pick her curriculum and help her with preparations and come up and help her in her first week.

So the next two weeks I spent a lot time researching things for a 7th grader, then discussing options with her. Also asking Jennifer what she thought, since she had tutored Jordan some last school year.

Then once all her books came in, Rose and I headed up that way.
We made it in on time to go to Tori's birthday party. Then on Sunday from church to bedtime I did nothing but lesson plan with Kristie. She was all set to start on Monday morning. She was a little nervous because she also works part time at her church. But Jordan can go to work with her and do his independent studies there while she works.

I thought their first few days went great! And she really didn't need me there. But I was there for her in case she did. I love my sister. (both of them)

Anyways, I was done filling in her lesson plans for the first few months, so on Wednesday Rose and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Rose had a blast....riding on the ranger, playing with the barn cats, and the new puppy, etc. Grandma let her steer the ranger. She loved that! We had a great visit.

So that is why I was back up in KY so soon after our long visit.

And just in case you want to know what we think a great option for a 7th grader's education... here is what we picked:

Core (Bible, History, Geography, Science, ETC): My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures Deluxe package with 7th and 8th grade supplement
Math: Teaching Textbooks
Language Arts: Queen Language Lessons
Character Development: Character First
A Child's book of Character Building
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends (book, dvd, and cd)
Boyhood and Beyond
Plants Grown Up
For This Is Right
Thoughts for Young Men
Literature: Classic Lit
Truth and Grace Character Building Set
Nightly Reading: more Classic lit
Wisdom and the Millers
Prudence and The Millers
and maybe more, I am pulling this from memory so I may have forgotten something.

As you can see everything is strongly Bible based. Understanding that God is our Creator and Jesus our Savior should be shown in all learning. We also think character development is one of the most important benefits to homeschooling, thus so many resources in that subject.

Yes, of course, one on one tutoring produces academically advanced students as well, but I consider that a side benefit, not the main point.

So now I and BOTH of my sisters homeschool!

:)