Catching Up

I am sorry for my prolonged absence. This summer has been a very difficult one for my family. We have moved (the location I will not disclose at this point on a VERY public forum), which was hellish in and of itself. We have gone on vacation to NC and fallen in LOVE with the mountains. So much so, that Darling Husband is now actively seeking a job there. I have plenty of pictures to post, and will do so as soon as I get around to undertaking such a magnificent task.

Finally, we are entering into a new step: school. Our oldest daughter, Sweet Pea, is entering Kindergarten this year. As a (logical) result, this blog will be filled with our adventures on this new journey.

There are several things I have learned as we are preparing to take this momentous step in our lives. First, the amount of homeschool curriculum out there is overwhelming. Most of it claims to make homeschooling easier, or be the next great thing to enable your child to learn the most, or claiming to be the most "efficient' way to teach a child. It is overwhelming. Second, there is LOTS of planning to be done. LOTS. Days and evenings filled with sorting through page after page, web page after web page, book after book, and pouring my heart into plans for this year. To give myself an idea of what Sweet Pea needs to know upon completion of Kindergarten I have been researching various state Kindergarten Graduation standards. I have been using this as a guide while planing out her school year. I have learned something monumental while doing this research: Sweet Pea knows almost everything she needs to know to be a "kindergarten graduate" and has yet to start Kindergarten. So, I am proving her with a mixture of Kindergarten and First grade and expect her to fall somewhere between the two upon completion of the school year (my mom, however, predicts that I will have Sweet Pea through both Kindergarten and First grade...we shall see if her lofty predictions based upon 20 years of homeschooling come true or not. Any wagers?)

Little Man is fully learned how to use the bathroom. He is a bright, happy, 3 year old boy whom I dare say is smarter than his big sister. I am not the only one to notice this either. He is not the energetic boy running and jumping on everything (although he does his fair share of running). Rather, he is a boy who studies everything intently. He HAS to know how everything works...and why. He is going to be super intelligent just like his father and his uncle (my youngest brother).

Baby Girl is now 9 months old. I can not figure out where the time has gone! She is crawling all over, pulling herself to standing and standing there, utilizing only one hand, while bouncing and "jumping" in place. She has 3 teeth (two bottoms, one upper) and devours any and all solid food (and some non-food objects) she can find. She hasn't had her 9 month well visit yet, but at 8 months was 23 lb 12 oz and I'm measuring her here at home to be around 30" to 31" long. She is a BIG girl wearing 2T clothes.

That is about all the news for the HorseyMama family. Thank you for reading, and please leave your comments. May God bless you all and keep you safe.