Epic Online Charter School Review... a Peek Inside our Homeschool Day

We've homeschooled the kids almost exclusively since they've been born, really.  Learning doesn't start at some specific age as far as I can tell.  Out of my five kids, not one of them seems to learn the same things at the same rate.  They're so incredibly different, I'll admit its been a challenge to be their teacher.

Back to School!  Wonderful weather, so we can do work on the deck!

Sprite, the oldest, graduated a couple of years ago, having homeschooled the whole way through.

Kainan, my one child who thrives on schedules and structure (both of which are my biggest weaknesses), decided that he wanted to try public school last fall.  He's thriving in the public school system and loves it.

Kainan (middle) and his friends hanging out after school as usual.

Jaedin, Paris and Abyni are all still at home.  This year, however, we're using a virtual online charter school.  We tried to sign up for one last year and had so much trouble trying to even register that I finally gave up.  This year my friend Momma Jorje highly recommended Epic Charter School.  I decided to give it a try...

And so far, I love it.  I love the local teacher that is assigned to the girls and Jaedin's teacher is awesome as well.  

The way it works is that you sign up and get a learning fund once your transfer is approved.  The learning fund allows you to then buy curriculum for your child.  There are several curriculum options to choose from.  The girls (5th & 9th grades) chose "Compass" and Jaedin (a Senior at 16) chose "Advanced Academics".  Then you're assigned a local teacher who can meet with you and your student to do things like benchmark testing, reviewing assignments in person (like physical artwork type assignments or experiments, etc).  They're "on call" and our teachers have been AMAZING with responding to questions from the kids.  I really appreciate these teacher's patience especially as we work through the kinks of learning this new process!

I love the fact that I don't have to do lesson planning.  I don't have to do the grading, and we still have all of the benefits of homeschooling.  Jaedin, a super self motivated student, can work at his high speed rates and power through a year's worth of school in one semester.  The girls can work at their own pace, as long as they keep up... and even though we got a late start, they're catching up quickly.

The learning fund even allows for the rental of one of their laptops, which is a godsend for us!  The laptops are far more powerful than any of our home computers, so Paris can even use her for her elective... video editing & filming (Yep, they can even use a hobby that they want to learn more about as an elective in high school!)

**I will add that the curriculum that the girls chose (Compass) has been FULL of glitches, especially for Paris.  There are tons of things that aren't working, causing severe stalls in learning and a small pet peeve of mine, spelling errors in the English lessons.  I definitely will try Epic again, because their support has been awesome, but I will not choose Compass as a curriculum again.

Benefits of homeschooling?  Its different for everyone.  For us...

• Getting to run in the yard with the dogs for P.E.
• More family time

I love how well my kids get along and how close they are!

• (My personal favorite) More time spent learning what they love to learn (Paris' special effects makeup, video filming & editing; Sewing & fashion design, yep!  Jaedin's guitar and piano lessons?  His Airsoft gun repair and business?  Yep!

• 

  One of Paris' most awesome SFX makeup styles yet!

• Being able to work around our own schedules.  We are decidedly not morning people, but we can start school at 10:00 and still we're usually done by 3:00 every day, which is right around the time Kainan gets home from the Senior High!  Perfect timing!
• Being able to work around different learning styles.
• Not having to worry about unwanted daily influences that we don't want our kids exposed to on a constant basis.  Plus, as a benefit to others, my crazy kids aren't out there regularly influencing other people's children either... unless they're watching them on youtube.  Then, no guarantees.

She was able to learn and film several fun and interesting Halloween looks for her elective.

She uses Windows Movie Maker for editing video this year.  Next Semester, we may use the learning fund to invest in some photoshop software so that she can do more.

Taking Diva for a run = P.E.

Teaching Diva to fetch = Recess

Teaching Diva to fetch = FAIL.  Diva just looks at Abyni like she's nuts.  "Why do you keep showing me this toy and then throwing it away?  DO you think its coming back?"

Running with Paris and Diva because girls tire out faster than dogs.

And Diva can still be close by.  Thank goodness!

Jaedin, who is set to graduate early this year has taught himself guitar, Airsoft gun repair and is now working on voice and piano!

Pets! A New Member of the Family: The Newest Diva

I have never been an animal lover.  For years I said that we weren't going to have pets at all...

Then we lived out in the country and stray cats were everywhere and my kids fell in love.

So then I said, "Okay, no INSIDE pets.  Ever.  Period.  No matter what!"

And then we got Sedona.  She was part wolf, part Siberian Husky, and she was the most gloriously beautiful dog.  She was an outdoor dog, she had plenty of room to run and she was a happy dog.  Then we moved to a rental house in Tulsa, and we had to find a family for her.  She went to another home, with another family with young kids and a huge yard to run around in.  That was heartbreaking for my husband, and then HE was the one that said, "NO MORE PETS."

Then we lived on the road and he found 'Sugar' a yellow lab that became the next "Best Dog Ever".  We had her for four years, until the day when we were away on vacation and the pet sitter called to tell us that something was wrong.  Some person was randomly poisoning dogs throughout the neighborhood.  Sugar didn't survive.

Patrick and the kids were especially devastated.  He really said "NO MORE PETS!!!"

It was heartbreaking.  The kids were ready for another dog long before Patrick was.

Then Sprite got a cat that we named Elephant.  Who apparently is not amused at being woken from her nap.

Then we got Jaedin a part Siamese cat for his birthday...He named her "Boo" but dogs were still a "NO!"

Then a year later, I was at a garage sale with the kids, and they had these adorable little balls of fur and the kids fell in love.  Because my husband is the pet picker outer, I called him to come and have a look.  He loved one of the puppies enough, that we had a new dog.  We named her Kitty.

She kind of blends in with the futon, she's a big old ball of shaggy black fur.

Now, Kitty is still around, Elephant is still around, there are no more fish, but we have a Python named Attila.  Paris and Kainan have been BEGGING to be allowed to get a couple of ferrets, but Patrick has put his foot down and repeatedly say, "NO MORE PETS!!!"

Until yesterday.  A friend posted this on facebook...

My husband of the "NO MORE PETS" saw this and immediately responded that if I was okay with it, he would go take her.  "For a trial run" (Lol, he's already so in love with the dog 12 hours later... no way would he give her up now:)

He came home with this gorgeous "Diva" just under 24 hours later.  It would have been sooner, but he had to work late:)  He's such a softie for dogs...

The Diva meeting Kitty

Meeting Jaedin & Kainan

Checking out the whole house

This is one big dog!  Although Patrick keeps commenting how surprised he is at how small she is for a Mastiff.

Doing her three turns around the bed that she claimed (Paris got pushed to the floor:)

Getting some good night hugs from Jaedin.

This morning Kitty and The Diva got into a fight when The Diva tried to step foot on what is apparently Kitty's futon.  I broke it up and separated them for a while... all is well now.  She's inspired and energized our previously lazy dog, the kids love her and Patrick's been playing with her since he got home ten minutes ago, so I think it will all go well!

Are you a pet person?  Show me your pets!

Welcome to Our Home: The Office, Art Room, Den, Ummm... Bedroom???

Welcome to my new home!

This is the first room when you enter the house.  You probably actually notice the living room first, as there is a big "window" in between the rooms, but this is technically the first room.  It is meant to be a dining room, but its kind of our office/all purpose room.

The color did not show at ALL in this photo, but this is the "window" to the living room.  Patrick wants to put a saltwater fish tank here at some point.

I wanted it a bright lime green... but when the paint dried, it was more of an apple green.  Poo.  I am REALLY not thrilled by the color, but I have too much to do to fix it now.  Maybe later, or more likely it will grow on me for a year:) 

 The Teal shade in the door frame is the color of the living room wall and hall ceiling. 

Setting up our office:

The computer desk that we got at a garage sale for $10.00!

The Arts & Game table w/4 chairs that we found at a yard sale for $6.00!

The shelving was from Lowes.  We bought them last year for our other house to use in the kitchen... they were on sale at the time for I think $60.00.  We bought all of the baskets at that time, too, I can't remember how much, but it felt like a LOT to me because I'm fairly cheap:)

Patrick bought me this cool grass plant (no, not that type of grass... some kind of curly grass. I love it:)  That sits on some little drawers we got at a second hand furniture store for a few bucks.  I will paint them and hang them in the entry way at some point... maybe.

Speaking of THAT type of grass, our front yard has a Chinese Maple tree in it, and the second time we came to look at the house, my daughter Paris came in with a leaf and said, "MOM!  Look at what's growing in our front yard!"  I almost freaked out at first glance.  I mean, come on, I've never actually SEEN pot leaves in real life, so what do I know, but:

ANYway, back to the house... oh, wait, JUST as we were moving, my oldest daughter calls from out of state to tell me that her boyfriend lost his job, and since they were planning on moving down here at the end of the year anyway... can they come and stay for a few weeks or so while they look for a job and apartment for him?  

Um... well, Sure.  Why not?  We bought an inexpensive futon at WalMart for Matt to camp out on.  We set it up opposite the art desk.  We're still trying to find places to put things, but its going fine.  For us, anyway.  This poor guy has lived alone for years, and grew up with only one brother.  Suddenly he's thrust into this house full of 7 crazy family members that he just met.  I guess this is a good test for him to see if he really wants to marry into all of this!  Now our shelves are a little bit MORE full...

My 11 year old daughter made this painting for the front room.  I LOVE it!!

SNEAK PEEK:  Tomorrow, The Living Room!!!

What is your favorite room in the house and why?

Sneak Peek! Our New House in Progress!

Sneak Peeks!!!

We're HOME!!!

We finally closed on the house after a two week, really expensive delay... and I got sick.  All of the stress apparently obliterated my immune system, so here we are, at the new house and I get to sit.  And sit.  And delegate.

Grandpa came for a visit... just in time to help us move!  

He helped Abyni get the hammock set up ($50.00 at Aldi!)

What turned out to be a really nice hammock!

First order of business:  Removing ugly wallpaper!  All of the kids had a hand in this.  There was a lot of wallpaper, and it was very VERY well done because it took a while to get off.  

Good friends=Great helpers!  The girls' friends love to help with our new house.  It is awesome because having a friend around makes my kids more anxious to work, too!

We used the hot water and fabric softener tips from pinterest which helped the under layer come off in sheets.

Paris taking the initiative to create her own custom glitter flooring for her bedroom!

I found this hilarious, my side of the closet is fairly empty thus far, but its all hot pink.  Patrick's side is mostly black (mainly because I think he's sexy in black:)

Patrick found a refurbished refrigerator for $250.00  Yay!  Under budget!

Kainan has done a large portion of the unloading from the POD.  He gets all the heavy work because he was down with a fractured ankle for the first part of the move.  Plus, he's buff enough to handle it.  Jaedin is helping, too, but he did most of the packing and loading before.

Filling up our new garage.  We're waiting to take most everything in until the walls are painted and the floors are done.  Especially since we would like to rip up carpets in a good portion of the house.  The blue carpets throughout the house are filthy and fairly gross to even look at.

Inadvertent funny.  I was in a big hurry to get this load done before it really started raining, so I didn't notice that Kainan's childhood "Sleepyhead" was hanging out of the trunk the whole way here.  I'm surprised no one pulled me over!

The first morning at our new house.  My little boy sleeping on the floor (Yeah, we weren't even going to wait for beds!)

Stay tuned!  We have a lot of decorating come up including:

The Avenger's Themed, custom Painted Bathroom

How to Create a Black Glitter Cement Floor

Painting Kitchen Cabinets

Making Custom Watercolor Wall Paper

Designing with Sharpies

Building Custom Enclosed Bunks

Vintage Decor

and more!!!

What is your decorating style?

Painting a Fairy Land Mural in our Girl's Bedroom

Well, we still have some finishing touches, adding some fairies here and there, but it looks so neat! I am SO glad my mom came to help me with this, because it is a BIG room and I was very overwhelmed. We spent about 7+ hours on Tuesday and finished up today in probably 3-4 hours. I had to leave to go to work... but here are the photos.  The girls wanted a room that looked like it was on the outside of a castle, looking out into a world where they could play fairies.

My mom sketched out this view so that it looks like the room extends far out.  She is so awesome!

We painted flowers that matched the fake flowers that we picked up at Old Time Pottery.

I painted the door to look more like a rounded castle door.

A unicorn playing by the stream...

We added the fake plants to the closest posts to match the painted ones that were "far away"

It made for a very realistic look!

Paris wanted her bed to be back in a "fairy cave" and mom used her glow in the dark paint to paint 'hidden' fairies around and inside the giant 'tree'... 

My hubby lying on Abyni's bed after a long day at work.

This room was SO fun to paint!  

Thanks to my mother for being so much help!