Chilson Family

As summer is quickly coming to a close, it has brought a new season to my life.  I have been a full-time home educating mom for the last 16 years with three years of home education several years before that.  As of today, my home educating hat is put on the rack.  There may be a time in the future it is needed, but for now it is on the rack.  Today, our last six scholars went off to school with Hubby.  Today is the first day of school at the Christian school where Hubby is teaching full-time.  This is the first time they will be schooling where home is not the classroom for academics.  (it remains the classroom for many other things!) This day brings mixed emotions.  We knew there would be a day when Hubby stepped back into full-time Christian education.  I have prepared myself for this.  I already shed many silent tears before this day.  But I know that a door of opportunity of serving is just ahead.  God ha...

Today is the final day of our 2013/14 school year!   We are all ready for a break.  I am ready to have my weekends back without the added work of preparing the next weeks lessons and test and quiz reviews!!!  The scholars are ready to have their weeks back without the extra studies!  With this school year out of the way I am on the count down for the 2014/15 school year.  This has brought many groans when I remind the scholars how many days of "freedom" they have left!  One hundred-one days until we begin!!! Life is good!

Graduation is finished!  Tuesday evening Daughter #3 graduated and did a wonderful job.  I cried!  Our graduates are required to give a speech.  This is very hard on some of them, especially if they are not one who like to get up in public and speak.  And Daughter #3 is one of "them".  But she did great!  I knew she was nervous, but you could not tell by the way she spoke and poised herself!  Today we celebrate again with her open house, then over to Son #2's home for a cookout! Yesterday was our last day of school!  Yes!  All exams are finished and graded!  Everyone was promoted to the next grade!  So next year we will have only 7 scholars in school. Grades 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, two in 9th , and 11th!  Half-way!!!!!  Yesterday I put all of the second semester of quiz and test reviews into storage and put in place the first semester of the next school year!  It is a very big job and takes a few hours so it organ...

Very busy day!  We started school this morning.  Not just my home educated scholars, but even my college scholar! Our my morning started at five.  I had the scholars up at six and watched Son #4 leave for work.  Everyone had personal devotions, breakfast and dressed by 6:40!  So they all started school!  This is not unusual for them.  Last year they were up by seven, but this year I moved it to six to give them some time to "lolly-gag" in getting ready.  I will see how this goes and adjust to what is needed. Daughter #2 started a new year at one of our local colleges.  I get to play taxi driver three days a week, meaning I get to take Hubby to and from work on those days.  This is the one disadvantage to having only one vehicle.  But for now it is all we have and I am very thankful for it! Daughters #6 and #3, Son #5 Son #5, Daughter #7, Son #7 Daughter #5 Daughter # 4, Son #6 (t...

Monday morning, 8 o'clock sharp, we will be back in school!  I am not sure who is more excited, me or the scholars.  Of course that means that I will be up around 5, scholars up at 6, devotions, breakfast, and school started no later than eight!  Lockers are ready, desk/dining room table will be ready, school supplies are distributed! It also means my "play" time with crafting will be limited to only evenings! *no smile* Here is a little project that I worked on today with my best friend Bonnie.  It is a recipe card book for a little gal at church who is getting married next month.  I thought it turned out really cute!  (the stamped images are Stampin' Up!, -of course- but the paper is something I had on  hand for quite a while)  I used my Zutter Bind-It-All and finished it with ribbon on hand in my ribbon drawer. (1) The book measures 4.25" x 5.5"  Label on front I printed on the computer using       ...

Today and tomorrow marks the last day for school for our 2011/2012 school year.  It is a bittersweet moment.  I will be glad to have a break and go back to being a full-time homemaker!  At the same time it is sad.  It means that my young ones are growing up and growing away.  Okay, maybe not like going off to college in the fall, but you know, another year gone. I was very tearful this afternoon since Daughter #7 finished the first grade.  She is now a second grader!  I have no more little ones to teach first grade!  She has learned so much.  We started the year reviewing simple addition families, one's, two's, etc., and ended the year starting the nineteen family and very simple multiplication! It will take me some time to close the year out totally.  I have new material to order and old to take off the shelves.  Some items will remain for the next child and some will never be used by us ...

The new school year!!!  I bet I walked ten miles today going up and down the stairs, and from scholar to scholar!  I thought I had vertigo for a bit, then I realized I was just a bit dizzy from going around the table, and around the table, and around the table...  We have five scholars upstairs in my dining room, which is where we do almost everything, and three scholars in the downstairs livingroom, that I rarely ever get to enjoy!  {long story for another day}  Our dining room table is just shy of twelve feet, not long enough, and about four feet wide.  By the time we get our materials out and video/laptops we end up with four at the table.  I know, "four at a big table?", but this is one time that the nesters can claim a space and not share.  We tried to put six at the table it was "Too Close for Comfort"!  {you should have seen my Stampin' Up! workshop with 14 adult women at my table!  good thing we were all friends, it w...

Tomorrow starts our official school year for our nesters.  We are back down to only eight scholars.  We have had a very nice summer break, and it is time to get back to the books!  Our original start date was the twenty-second, but I was seeing some signs of boredom...so we moved the date!  Daughter #3 started school last Monday, and I had Daughter #7 start on Thursday.  {the nesters have been fighting a virus and D #7 was the tail end of it, so I had her start on Thursday knowing that she would not feel like schooling on Monday and Tuesday...guess what?, I was right!  She has not felt well all day!} Home educating is a big undertaking, but when you add eight scholars in seven different grades, it can quickly become overwhelming!  The lockers have been ready for some time.  Some of our material has been revised so we had to pull the "out dated" and replace with current.  I should have taken a picture of before and after sorti...

If anyone has ever misled you that being a home educator is easy, let me lead you into the right path!  It is not!  I do not have time right now to give all the ins and outs of home education, but let me give just an insight to the title above, "Put Away the Old, Bring Out the New". Our school year has been over for a little over a week.  I am JUST now getting to removing the old material and putting out the new for 2011/2012 school year.  I had hopes-high hopes, I might add-to have the "lockers" {12 cube bookshelf} ready to go last Wednesday, the day following Daughter #2's graduation.  But life is busy and Momma fell short of the goal!  Now, I already felt bad because I did not accomplish what I felt I needed to have done.  But a 'friend' came over one evening last week and asked if I had redone the "lockers".  When I told her no, she stated that she didn't think so, because they did not look any different than before.  I could have cri...