So I have started this blog as my home schooling blog. I have a personal blog that is full of the day to day inane stuff that fills my life, but this one is to help keep me focused and to share with others our home schooling journey.

This is our 4th year of home schooling. The first two years I had both my dd at home.

I will use nicknames for them to safeguard their identity. Oldest dd who is now 14 will be silver_fangz (SF), youngest dd who is 12 will be Miss Mechanic(MM).

So we started when SF was in 6th and MM was in 3rd grade. The first year we used The Well Trained Mind method of classical home schooling. The next year we did part TWTM and part packaged (Calvert for MM, and Trisims for SF). That was a good year too.

Then SF decided to return to school. This decision was based on many things.

1. I had told the girls I wanted them to attend High School as I felt they would miss too many things that I could not provide (proms, football games, band, sports etc.). As a result SF felt she should go back to PS in 8th grade so she did not have to make the transition from middle school to high school and the transition from home school to public school all at the same time.

2. She was having problems with finding really good friends (which she really wanted) due to the limited number of children her age that we hung out with.

3. We moved from CA to Maui, and she felt school would be an excellent place to meet new people in a new place.

She did fantastic in school and made lots of friends. She starts HS next week and is in advanced classes for math, language and science. She had some difficult time with the transitions.. both to ps and the move in general but all in all she is very good.

MM continues to home school using Calvert. This year she is also enrolled in Myron B. Thompson academy Charter school which will provide some additional funds for things like art supplies (her favorite subject) and also will provide some class and field trip opportunities. We are still waiting for her test scores to come and let us know how well I am doing at covering the material to her understanding.

A little bit about myself. I am a certified PS teacher K-8 in the state of CA. I previously held a certification in AZ as well. I am continuing my education and working on my Masters degree... starting this fall. I worked for several years as the coordinator of a outreach program for a charter school for home study. This is where my introduction to home school came from and where I eventually received the support and desire to home school my own daughters.

We are a active duty military family which has it's good and bad sides. Some good points.... we seen all over place and even took the girls to Korea to visit their dad (who was doing a one year remote there with out us). Couldn't have done that if the girls were public school! Down side.. having to leave friends, family, pets and homes behind and having to make new friends, find new homes and pets and just make due without regular visits to and from family.

School starts for us in a week and 1/2. We go by the local ps calendar, as it makes it easier to plan activities and vacations. I hope to posting regularly from then on.