This is my main student, G.

G is my oldest son; he’s six. He is just starting 2nd grade studies. He is very bright, exceptionally intelligent, and is the sweetest soul I’ve ever known. He’s sensitive, kind, and so loving. He craves lots of physical contact and lots of interaction. He’s a very active boy, and I have quite a time keeping him occupied and keeping his mind on his studies, but at the same time, he really enjoys his schoolwork (overall).

And then there is my youngest student, D:

D is my youngest son; he’s going to turn three next month. But for now, he’s two. He will be starting very light preschool this school year. He knows his alphabet, but we’ll be working on learning letter sounds and on numbers to twenty. Very basic stuff, but it will be his first official homeschooling, and I’m excited about it.
D is all boy, kind of the opposite of his brother. He’s rough and fearless. He’s quite bright, and is very serious. He’s always been my “old soul”, and a bit moody; again, the opposite of his brother.

I’m so blessed with both these boys; I got two completely opposite personalities, and I couldn’t love either of them any more than I do. I can’t wait to completely recover from surgery so I can dive into this new school year with them.

Be sure to visit The Heart of The Matter Online and check out all the other students featured this week. And if you didn’t catch School Room Week or Curriculum Week, go back and check those out, too! Don’t forget about next week, either—it will be Day In The Life Week, where we get to share what our typical homeschool day is like.

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Heart of The Matter Online is hosting this year’s (Not) Back-to-School Blog Hop, a four-week showcase of all the (not) back-to-school goings-on of the homeschooling community. I’m excited to get to participate this year! All the posts were very helpful to me last year, as I embarked upon our first official year of homeschooling.
Week One (Aug 2-6) is Curriculum Week, so…
I’ll just jump right in and share what we’re using for Gray’s 2nd grade year.

Math:
Abeka Arithmetic 2.
We used Arithmetic 1 last year, and I can’t rave enough about what a thorough, traditional math program this is. I wanted traditional; any kind of “new” math worries me because I don’t like to experiment when it comes to my kids’ learning of crucial life skills like math and reading. Abeka delivers an extremely solid math program, and it’s also incredibly easy to teach, since the teacher’s lessons are scripted for you. I usually don’t use the scripting to a “t”, but I love having it there as a guide, especially when teaching a concept that’s a bit difficult to explain.

The only con I give it is the rigid 5-day a week scheduling that’s hard to adapt (but we are adapting it this year to a 4-day schedule, regardless). Gray thrived on this math program last year, so despite my hesitations on its rigidity with scheduling, I decided to stay with what works well.

Phonics:
We’re using Abeka Phonics (Letters & Sounds 2).
Again, the same program as last year, but the more advanced 2nd grade version. And again, Abeka rocks the phonics the same way they do the arithmetic. Solid, traditional, and extremely thorough (to the point of tedium, but IMO a bit of tedium is sometimes a necessary evil when it comes to making sure kids know how to read and properly use the English language; the same goes for learning math). This is the final year of Phonics. He has it down, but I’m still using it to give him both a review as well as a thorough foundation in phonics & reading. I’m doubling up on lessons and hoping to finish the course by Christmas, so we can move on to grammar. We’ll see how that goes. If it feels like too much, I’ll slow it down and we’ll save grammar for next year.

Grammar:
Rod & Staff - Preparing to Build - English 2
Once we finish Phonics, we’ll move on to grammar. I searched extensively for a simple, but thorough grammar program that would teach parts of speech on a 2nd grade level. It was frustrating, because basic grammar doesn’t seem to be a popular subject anymore (and oh, how it shows!). I was very discouraged because everything I looked at seemed to be lacking in depth. I know it’s only 2nd grade, but I still want to properly introduce the parts of speech in their most basic forms.

I stumbled upon Rod & Staff through the Well-Trained Mind forums, and was surprised that it seemed to fit the bill. I found used copies in great condition at our local HS consignment store, so I was able to look through the books, and when I did, my choice was confirmed (after also sifting through many positive reviews on homeschoolreviews.com, of course).

Rod & Staff is very much a Christian curriculum. It’s a little odd because it’s very old-fashioned (Mennonite, actually) and its theme is heavily based upon farming and rural family life. Perusing the books is like time-traveling back to the 50s…or before. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It teaches grammar, it teaches it well, and the lessons are short & sweet. It’s exactly what I wanted, and I can’t wait to get to it later in the school year! As I said, we’ll finish up phonics first. If grammar gets pushed to 3rd grade, we’ll be fine.

Reading:
I don’t follow a formal reading curriculum. I wish, wish, wish we could afford Sonlight’s reading program, but we just can’t. So I decided to make my own program as close to Sonlight’s method as possible.

We already have a time each day after our lessons are done, where we sit on the loveseat together and G reads out loud from either a chapter book on his level, or from a book of fairy tales/stories, or something similar. During this time, I correct any mistakes and have him sound out any unfamiliar words on his own. I also try to ask questions to see that he understands what he’s reading, as well as to teach him to really pay attention to what he’s reading.

In the Sonlight tradition, I’ll also be doing daily read-aloud time with both boys, where I read out loud to them from a selected book that is beyond G’s reading level. My first selection this year will be The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which we’re both very excited about! I’ve never read the entire thing myself, and G hasn’t ever heard it all, either. We’re both huge fans of the movies & the story, so this should be really enjoyable.

History:
The Mystery of History Vol. 1. This is the curriculum I’m most excited about diving into. The course is presented in the classical education method. Volume one covers from Creation to the resurrection of Christ. This curriculum is obviously Bible-based, but it’s done with a twist. It covers ALL ancient history, from all over the world, but it lines it up chronologically with what was going on Biblically at the same time. For instance, Daniel was exiled in Babylon at about the same time Aesop was writing his fables, Ruth lived at the same time as Helen of Troy, etc. I find this terribly fascinating, and I look forward to sharing it with G as we both study this unique take on history together.

Writing:
Writing With Ease 2.
Writing is G’s weakest subject, having “only” scored in the 94th percentile compared to other students his age. We used Abeka’s Language 1 course last year, and while it did give plenty of opportunities to practice writing, it was sorely lacking in instruction on HOW to actually write. For instance, it would present a blank page with a picture of a cute puppy, with the instructions, “Write a story about a puppy.” G would linger over the page for 15 minutes, finally producing 3 or 4 weak sentences that described the puppy and what he might be doing. I felt like there should be more instruction on exactly how one should go about “writ(ing) a story about a puppy”, so I decided to ditch Abeka’s lacking Language program for 2nd grade.

In my search for a solid writing program, I found that most all curricula missed the mark on teaching the “hows” and “whys” of good writing. There were plenty of writing assignments, but no good, thorough “how-to” instructions.

And then I found Writing With Ease. It’s a completely different take on teaching writing; perhaps a bit experimental, even, but after careful research, I’ve decided to give it a try. WWE takes a slow, gentle approach in the early years by teaching young students first how to copy, then narrate, and then finally, to dictate passages from classic literature. In other words, it spends a couple of years exposing them to good writing, teaching them to “hear” exactly what good writing sounds like before ever asking them to write something original from their own minds. Original writing is gradually introduced in later elementary years, and then is demanded in the middle school years and perfected in the high school years. It’s all very much in line with the Classical Education method; it was, in fact, created by the author of “The Well-Trained Mind” (Susan Wise Bauer). The reviews were excellent, and I’m curious to try it for a year (or two) and see what it does for G. If it doesn’t deliver, then he still has plenty of years in which to learn writing via another method.

At the suggestion of a teacher friend (thanks Stacey!), I’ll also be having him do journaling at least a few times a week. Because I feel he should at least do some creative writing without any rules or pressure, and let that skill grow informally in the meantime.

Handwriting:
For the first part of the year, I’ll continue having him practice his manuscript daily, as he’s done for the past couple of years. We’ve never used a curriculum for handwriting; I taught him how to write when he was 3, just by sitting next to him and helping him learn to form each letter, then having him practice regularly on his own. His manuscript handwriting is quite nice when he’s really trying, so I think he’s ready to move on to cursive sometime this 2nd grade year. I’m thinking later in the fall or perhaps after Christmas. And for teaching cursive, I decided on A Reason for Handwriting, book C. It’s a Christian curriculum, with each week’s focus on writing letters, then words, and finally a complete Bible verse. On the 5th day (we won’t be doing a 5-day week, so each “week” will be split up for us), G will get to copy the week’s Bible verse onto a picture-lined page and color it. Then, he gets to choose who he’ll give the final, decorated sheet to. It’s suggested that he give/send it to a friend, a family member, or even to take it to a nursing home or hospital to give it to a patient who needs cheering up. We’re both excited about this aspect—getting to share something sweet with a new person each week! The weekly give-away sheet is good motivation for using his best handwriting. I can’t wait to use this curriculum!

Science:
No official curriculum for science this year. I want to get these first years of heavy reading instruction out of the way and then we’ll focus more specifically on science; in the meantime, G has no lack of interest in many scientific subjects, so he will be assigned to read a bit each week about whatever scientific subject he’s interested in at the moment, via his own books, his magazines, our encyclopedias, or from library books.

Bible:
I don’t have an official curriculum for Bible; I haven’t found anything I really like for our needs & schedule. However, we’ll still be doing short Bible lessons daily. I plan to read them a quick Bible story & related lesson each morning over breakfast. We can discuss for a few minutes and then move into our other studies once we finish that and our breakfast. If anyone knows of any quick, easy Bible lessons for homeschoolers, please do share.

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One final thing to note is that even though our school year has begun, we’re not using most of these items yet. The only subjects we’re covering at this time are Math and Phonics; everything else we’ll begin in September, when our full school year starts. Normally, we’d start the entire year at the first of August, but since I have surgery and then weeks of recovery all during August this year, we had to do things differently; I had to break some things up and get started early on the two main subjects for the year (math & phonics). Otherwise, we’d fall behind in those subjects.

So I can’t personally attest to how great many of these curricula are…yet. I’m just going by the positive reviews I’ve read, as well as what I can tell by flipping through the books and seeing what they have to offer. Later in the school year (maybe halfway through?), I’ll do an update and report on how each subject’s curriculum is working for us.

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Now that our summer break is over and I’ve had a chance to go through all our supplies & cabinets, purging and organizing anew, I finally took pictures of our homeschool space—I had to hurry before it all gets disorganized, you know. Actually, my goal in organization is to make it where things actually stay that way during the school year, and so far, it’s been pretty successful.

Anyway, here are the pics of our space; I tried to give both a big picture as well as a detailed view of all the storage areas so you can take ideas as needed. I also tried to move clockwise from my starting point.

Here are the boys at the table; Little D is having lunch while G is finishing up his independent work. G is just beginning 2nd grade work, and D is going to be starting preschool-type learning later this fall.

Note that Little D has been tucked away for his nap; G is still finishing up his work. This is the view from our dining table/school space into the kitchen.

This is the split view from our dining table/school space; the kitchen to the left, the living area to the right. I love the openness.

This is the view from the table/school space into the living area and also the wall where I keep our calendar/supply cabinet:

Closer view of calendar/supply cabinet. I keep the clock/flag/globe/money tray up there to keep them out of reach when not in use. Otherwise they tend to get roughed up or strewn out.

Inside the supply cabinet, Top row: Readers & schoolbooks I want G to get to this year, and magazine holders full of their coloring/activity/paint books. 2nd row: Markers, colored pencils, crayons, and math flash cards. 3rd row: Dictionary, phonics flash cards, games, other supplies in bins. 4th row: Big phonics cards (used daily), abacus, file with last year’s portfolio (because I’m still adding things here & there).

One of the windows in the dining area, my favorite one to look out of. There’s a bird feeder that gets lots of visitors, and the boys’ wisteria bush.

The view facing the windows, looking in from living area. On that wall with the clock, I’m going to put up a fabric-covered bulletin board and frame it out, on which to display their art masterpieces & excellent schoolwork. The bank of cabinets there was built specifically with our homeschool space in mind, and I’ll detail that next.

This is the cabinet bank I had included into our house plans. I couldn’t have a separate room, but I got a separate bank of cabinets, and I love them! They serve a dual purpose for both school supplies and for our medicines & a few table-related items.

The top cabinets hold all of our art supplies and other school supplies that I want to keep out of reach. They also hold our table napkins and Des’ bibs, as well as our med/vitamin supply (multipurpose!). Those lazy-susan turntables are excellent for storing meds, vitamins, and school supplies!

The countertop is where I keep all our daily books for easy access: my manuals, his worktexts & workbooks, lapboards, Bible. Also, our pencil cup is there (not shown) as well as our pencil sharpener. All things we use daily.

The drawers hold Des’ letters & scrap paper for scribbling, and all the various small office supplies that need corralling. Dry erase markers/eraser, grading pens, rubber bands, erasers, stapler, stamps, counting sticks, index cards, etc.

The bottom cabinets hold paper trays on the left for filing daily work, artwork, and all the different types of paper we use; in the middle is a box full of recycled office paper with print on only one side (what the boys use for drawing, writing, etc, usually free-time stuff); on the right is a collection of all kinds of bigger supplies for art (cardboard segments, newsprint, etc. In the very back I keep various containers stashed away for future storage purposes.

And there is a complete view of the school space, as well as a very detailed description of all the supplies we use and how I store them all. It works well, and I really enjoy it. To tell the truth, I’m secretly happy that my plans for a separate schoolroom didn’t work out. We enjoy working out in the open and it’s much easier to tend to Des and do housework while G works this way. We’d likely feel claustrophobic in a closed room, and it probably wouldn’t work well with Des. This works great for us and we feel happy and sunny most every day as we sit and do lessons together while Des plays in the areas around us (or wreaks havoc, whichever you choose to call it ). The only thing I wish I could do is hang posters, which I don’t want to do in our dining area, but would do if we had a separate room. That’s the only negative I’ve found after a year of homeschooling in this space. Which, in the big picture, is nothing to complain about! I love our space and thank God for allowing us to have it.

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Test Behavior and Observations

G separated from his mother for testing without difficulty. Rapport was easily established and maintained. G is a verbal child (no kidding! he makes my ears bleed with his incessant chatter!) and liked to elaborate on his verbal responses. He also engaged in spontaneous conversation. Some speech articulation problems were noted, especially with the internal “R” sound. G is very aware of this and took the time to explain that his “internal R’s” may sound different. This examiner had no difficulty understanding word responses and conversation.

Woodcock Johnson Test of Achievement, Scores

Broad Reading - 4th grade 8th month - 99th percentile
Broad Math - 3rd grade 3rd month - 99th percentile
Broad Written Language - 3rd Grade 8th month - 99th percentile

Summary/Conclusions

G scored in the upper extreme in all academic areas. He demonstrated very superior academic skills in word identification, reading speed, and reading comprehension.

In math, G scored in the upper extremes in calculations, math fluency and applied problems such as counting money, telling time, and word problems.
In written language he demonstrated excellent spelling skills, writing expression, and writing fluency.

Overall, G’s highest academic score was in spelling (99.9th percentile) and his lowest score was in writing fluency under time restraints (94th percentile). All of his academic skills are in the superior to very superior range.

His academic standard scores are commensurate with his verbal IQ score (which was 99th percentile/upper extreme). G performs significantly above grade level in all areas measured.

G’s mother uses the A-BEKA program for Reading and Math. She brought notebooks of work samples that were reviewed by this examiner and all work was complete. G impressed me as a child who could be a successful second grader in public school. He is exceeding both age and grade expectations.

We are so proud of him! And I love to think that, everything he knows, I taught him. It’s the joy of being a homeschooling mom; it’s a privilege to say that, and darn it, I’m proud. Clearly he’s doing well and thriving, which tells me I’m doing the right thing, which I already knew I was doing anyway! But there’s nothing like having official proof to show the naysayers—and there are plenty of them when it comes to homeschooling. That said, I’m so grateful for the support of family and many friends in my endeavor to educate our kids far beyond anything they could get outside their own loving home. Here’s to another successful year…2nd grade, here we come!

(Speaking of 2nd Grade, we started last week! We normally wouldn’t start back quite that early, but I have an upcoming surgery to work around, so I had to make up for the 3-4 weeks I’ll be spending recuperating rather than teaching. G’s summer is a being broken into two month-long chunks this year; next year I’ll try to give him 2 straight months off. My next post will be covering the eclectic mix of curriculum I chose for this year’s studies. And I must get pics of our HS area posted; I never did that last year, but I’d like to do it. I’ll get on that, too.)

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And even more importantly, I am cancer-free!

:D

I had my right mastectomy in NOLA on Friday, March 26th. With immediate reconstruction, so I know I’m not truly 55378008; it’s just so fun to write. But as for cancer-threatening 58008, they are gone and so is my risk. I can’t believe after 8.5 years of worry and fear, it’s gone, and I’m done with breast cancer risk. The most amazing part is that both the sentinel nodes she took (she removed 3) AND all the breast tissue came back with a completely benign pathology report. NO CANCER, not even an atypical cell found. Praise God! And it truly is a miracle with his hand all over it. With my history, and the very suspicious mammogram, the fact that everything was 100% benign has GOD written all over it!

We got the results last Thursday, the day before Good Friday. What an Easter gift this was. I saw Dr S that day, too, had a drain removed from my new breast, and was cleared to travel home. I came home to my boys on Good Friday. TEN DAYS away from my husband and sons…the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I did it for them. And I’m so glad I did, and I’m so glad it’s over!

I have at least two & a half more weeks of strict recovery here at home. No lifting more than 10lbs, no housework, not even driving for now. I have a 7-inch incision on my right butt where the fat was harvested for my beautiful new breast, with one drain left. That drain can be pulled here at home once the 3-week mark gets here AND the output is below a certain amount of cc’s. I cannot wait—it’s painful and uncomfortable to have a tube coming out of my hip, not to mention a pain to empty it twice a day and record the amount of fluid. I have to wear this compression girdle for one week AFTER the drain comes out, whenever that is. So this part, it’s not fun. But it’s worth it for the end result. I went through all this before, 8.5 years ago, when I had my left-side mastectomy & reconstruction. It really is worth it.

Speaking of my left side, Dr. S did some lipo on my thighs during the surgery, and transferred that fat to my left-side reconstruction, to make it fuller and give it better projection. It looks amazing now. During the stage 2 surgery I’ll have in 3 months, he will finalize both breasts, making them match in size & shape and constructing a nipple for my new right breast. To do this, he has to take a skin graft from my lower abdomen. When he does this, he will lipo any extra tummy fat for me (and deposit the fat into the left breast to make it even fuller), and after the skin graft is taken, he tightens the tummy skin completely, resulting in a mini-tummy tuck. All of this is just freebie-stuff he does to make women as happy as possible with their bodies after mastectomy. I LOVE IT!! I can’t wait. In just over 3 months, I’ll have a lifted, tightened butt, a tightened, flat tummy, and two new breasts that will be forever perky, and, most of all, forever free of the risk of cancer.

But for now, I recover. And it’s hard work. But worth it? Yes, it is so worth it. And the benign diagnosis? Words can’t express my relief. I am so glad to finally have this burden off my chest (literally! lol), this worry that’s shadowed every. Single. Day. since my diagnosis in September 2001. God is so good.

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First we went over my history. He marveled over my current left-side recontruction and knew right away what surgeon I’d used in NOLA (the reconstruction technique I underwent in ‘01 was developed by this surgeon in NOLA; his group is world-renowned for this state-of-the-art procedure).

Then he went over the mammogram. First he complimented the film quality—they did “an incredible job” with the mammo, according to him. So if you’re local, I highly recommend Angel Williamson Imaging (in both Pcola & FWB). He said he sees about 6 microcalcifications, clustered together in a linear, branching pattern. The last two terms are highly suspicious for malignancy within the duct. He began by saying that due to their pattern, “we definitely need to take it out”. So I responded by saying, “Actually, what I really want is a mastectomy; I just found out yesterday that my insurance covers prophylactic mastectomy based on history alone, so…” and he interjected with, “Oh, good, then; you already have a plan!”

So he agreed that to go ahead with mastectomy was a reasonable treatment plan for both the suspicious area and for my future health. Yessss.

He then added that there’s no way I’ll be able to get “this type” (referring to my left side) of reconstruction done here in the Pcola area. I rightfully assumed this already, but it was nice to hear the confirmation. He confirmed that plastic surgeons in Pcola only do reconstruction with implants—which are absolutely not an option for me. Same as I felt in ‘01, I’d rather have NO reconstruction at all, than implants. He also confirmed that to get the same, autologous (using my own redistributed fat) reconstruction I’d had before, I’d need to return to my surgeons in NOLA, a plan for which he gave his full support and recommendation.

He talked with me for a while about insurance coverage for this type of reconstruction. It’s tricky, I already knew. While insurance does cover reconstruction along with mastectomy, most insurers set limits on the cost, which isn’t a problem with straight implant reconstruction (which is relatively cheap), but this high-tech, autologous/microsurgical reconstruction that my NOLA surgeons do, comes at an immense cost (my total bill in ‘01 was over 100k for the entire surgery/hospital stay). Often insurance reimbusements don’t match the reconstruction surgeons’ cost, but instead of disallowing the difference, many reconstructive surgeons bill the difference to patients…which typically results in 10-30k out of pocket expense for the patient. I have no idea at this point if I’ll run into this scenario now, with my current insurance. This is one of the things we’re waiting to hear word about. Dr. R said that if there is a difference, that I should discuss it with my recon. surgeon, asking for him to write off the difference based on my being a returning patient and, in his words, “an extraordinary patient”. (Not sure what he meant by that, but perhaps it will help me!)
I’ll definitely do this if necessary; my recon. surgeon was a very sweet young man with whom I had a good relationship, so I hope he’d happily do this reconstruction for me, for whatever my insurance offers.

I thought it was nice of Dr. R to sit and talk with me and advise me about trying to get everything set up for surgery to take place in NOLA. What a great Dr! I’d ended up telling him that if we do run into the issue of insurance underpaying and my recon. surgeon not being willing to write off the difference, that there was no way I could pay for the tens of thousands of dollars in order to do it. So if that does end up being the case, I’ll just get a straight mastectomy with no reconstruction, because, again, implants are so not an option. He said that if it came to that, that he’d be happy to work with me and do the mastectomy for me. He was just a really caring, concerned doctor, and I appreciated his support for my plans.

So we ended our discussion with him wishing me luck in setting everything up in NOLA and for getting full insurance coverage for reconstruction. I asked him if delaying surgery for several weeks would be a danger (as far as leaving the suspicious area unchecked until I can get the mastectomy scheduled), and he said absolutely not. That he would be completely comfortable with me waiting a month, or possibly even up to two months until surgery, without any great danger. He did also point out that while the calcifications do point to malignancy, that it’s by far most likely to be intraductal, or, DCIS—which, while not a good thing, is NOT invasive…yet. So that helped me feel a bit less worried about the potential wait. He seemed very knowledgeable, and that along with my prayers for him to have wisdom in my case, makes me feel safe in waiting the necessary weeks until surgery.

Friday we got everything rolling in NOLA by calling my recon. surgeon’s office there (Dr. S). Liz, his patient liason, gathered all my info and started dealing with my insurance immediately to gain preauthorization for surgery. By the end of the day, she’d been in contact with them and said that everything was “going well” with them. She said that while Dr. S & his associates are well-booked, they always find a way to get surgery scheduled within one month if it’s a cancer case. She said I definitely count as a cancer case; even though I don’t have a diagnosis on this area yet, due to both my history and the fact that my surgery will be the biopsy on this area, it counts. Also, my being a return patient enables me to get higher priority, so she said they’ll get me in within a month. So that was a relief…as long as insurance cooperates, I’ll be getting my mastecomy within a month, and I’ll also find out what this area is…which is still a big issue to pray about.

**Please join me in praying that there will be no invasive cancer anywhere in my entire breast, as well as in the lymph node(s) that will be removed & biopsied.
And please pray that my insurance will 1) give NO problems authorizing this surgery right away, and 2) cover the entire recon. surgery bill, OR, that Dr. S will be willing to write off any difference that insurance doesn’t cover.**

I’ll update once we know more about the insurance and whatnot, but for now, that’s where I’m at. I’m just in awe of how God has moved these things in my favor. I couldn’t see how Thursday’s consult with Dr. R would end without confusion or frustration, but it ended in neither. It ended with amazement at yet another positive step being made. So many thanks for the prayers; they’re working.

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She sees some (3 or 4) new microcalcifications showing up around the single calcification I had on my ‘08 mammo (which, BTW, I was not informed about at that ‘08 mammo, a fact that I am furious about and will be following up on with Baptist). For those who don’t know, microcalcifications can be caused by something benign, but they often indicate cancer, especially when concentrated in one spot, because they’re formed by areas of rapid cell turnover.

Dr. W considers the increase in number to be suspicious, She also considers it a suspicious finding due to my “young” age; she said microcalcs are fairly normal in a much older woman, but not at all in the 30-40 age range. Those factors, plus my history, lead her to recommend a biopsy of the area, which of course I’m all for.
She recommends excisional biopsy (complete removal of the suspicious area) rather than the typical needle biopsy, because with a needle biopsy, a benign result doesn’t ever necessarily mean that there is no cancer present, it just means there was no cancer in the random little bit the needle removed. I agree with this 100%, since I know that a needle biopsy would’ve shown a benign result for me in ‘01, because my actual lump was indeed benign…it was the excisional biopsy that got out the extra tissue that did turn out to contain cancerous cells. So bring on the surgery, I say! (with a bit of trepidation, of course.)

I’ve got consultations scheduled with two different surgeons this coming Thursday (Mar 4). One is more of a general surgeon who has some expertise in breast surgery, and the other is a breast specialist who also headed the sentinel node biopsy program at Baptist in our city. I’m obviously leaning toward the 2nd surgeon, but I may keep both appts and see what each says…then choose which one to use once I’ve met and talked with them both. Praying about that decision. Both surgeons will schedule surgery within 1 week of the consult, so I should be having the biopsy within the next 2 weeks.

Now, to pray for the outcome. Please pray that if there is any cancer found, that it will be the NON-INVASIVE, DCIS form that I had last time. Non-invasive is key. Then a mastectomy would be in order, and that would be all I ever have to have done, in order to never face this again. I wouldn’t even have to have mammograms every year anymore; I would be “cured”, since I would be free of breast tissue, and therefore free of any chance of recurrence (well, 98% free).
If there is any invasive cancer, then we’ll be dealing with a whole different ballgame, and I don’t even want to go there. So please, pray that whatever is there, that it is non-invasive. Thanks for all the prayers,

***UPDATE 3/3/10***
Okay, what’s the great news? Well, there’s no news yet on what is brewing in my breast that’s caused the microcalcs on the mammo, BUT…

I found out this morning that our new insurance COVERS prophylactic (preventive) mastectomy under four situations, and one of those situations is if a patient has a personal history of breast cancer! That’s me! And that’s it! That is the open door I’ve been waiting for!
Many policies cover prohylactic mastectomy if a patient tests positive for the BRCA gene mutation (a test I’d wanted done for the sake of hopefully testing positive and therefore being eligible for the mastectomy, but couldn’t front the $3500 it costs), but apparently our insurance actually includes anyone who has simply had any form of breast cancer in the past.
So I’m eligible for 100% coverage (after our deductible) for the preventive mastectomy I’ve wanted for years!

I have the appointment to consult with the surgeon tomorrow at 3:30. It’s supposed to be a consult for the recommended biopsy, but I’m going to tell him that I want a preventive mastectomy instead. Assuming he’s on board with that (a very few surgeons still think it’s too aggressive of an approach, but most don’t, and even those who do will still do it for an informed and willing patient, which I am), he will start the process of gaining pre-authorization from my insurance, which I was told today would be just a matter of paperwork and confirming that I do indeed have a history of breast cancer that makes me eligible for coverage. Once the process is begun, I will have a mastectomy as soon as it can be scheduled, and my entire breast (along with 1 or 2 sentinel nodes) would be biopsied and checked over for any sign of cancer, either DCIS like I had on the left side, or invasive (which I pray will be absent). So the mastectomy would then become the “biopsy” I need anyway, but will allow me to skip the biopsy-only step. I hope this makes sense.
Basically, I’ve planned all along to get a preventive mastectomy on my remaining breast; I just wanted to have my 2 kids first and to breastfeed them. AND, I had to find a way to get it covered by insurance, which I NOW HAVE, to my great surprise! This is such an answer to prayer. Of course now I ask for prayer that the surgeon will be immediately on board, the process will begin immediately, and that it will go smoothly to get me this surgery FAST–I’m worried about what’s in there and want it out as soon as possible.

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This year we’re using ABeka curriculum for both Arithmetic and Language arts (which consists of Phonics, Language, Reading and Spelling). I really like it and it’s good for G. It’s very thorough for giving a solid foundation in these subjects, which is what you want to focus on for the first 3-4 yrs, at least. It is SOLID, almost to a fault (lots of repitition to make sure the basic facts are drilled into their brains. I personally like this; it makes me confident that he’s learning well…and he is!). There are other good curriculum choices, but ABeka seemed to make it very easy, and that’s what I wanted for our first official year of HS. It consists of daily lessons followed by reinforcement worksheets for Mon-Thur, and tests on Fridays. This M-F schedule is nice in some ways, but restrictive in others (like if I need to take a day off)…it’s my only complaint about ABeka, but so far it’s been something I can overlook. I’ll be reassessing this summer whether or not I’ll continue with ABeka for 2nd grade, or try something else that isn’t so rigid on the strict M-F schedule.

Our Days Monday-Thursday look like this:
After breakfast, we start school with a devotion & prayer, the Pledge (some days we skip this), the calendar & weather, and we go over his memory verse for the week. We are at the dining table for this and for all the lesson work. I require him to sit still and pay attention during lesson time. He has to ask permission to get up, because at first, he was just getting up on a whim to do little things. It drove me crazy and disrupted his attention, so until he is older or learns to sit still on his own, he has to ask to get up.

After the opening activities, I start the lessons with G. (During lesson time, Des will sometimes play on his own, and sometimes I’ll sit him at the table and let him draw or color. I’ve started giving him sheets with a letter to color, to get him ready for his preschool lessons that will probably start this fall.)

I start with a short Bible lesson, similar to a Sunday School lesson, only much more brief.
Next, I do his math lesson.
Phonics lesson is next.
Then we go over his spelling list and do either oral combinations or flashcards to practice addition/subtraction.
Then we move from the table and go sit on the loveseat together, and he reads a story out loud from his reader…this is a nice together time.
All of this is his lesson time, the time where I’m either teaching or working with him (in other words, this is the time I have to spend teaching each day). The total time spent doing lessons is usually 1 hour to 1.5 hours.

After this, it’s G’s “seatwork” time. This is where my teaching responsibility is done for the day (other than helping him when he needs it). He goes back to the table and does his worksheets: one for Math, one for Phonics, one for Language, and also usually one for Spelling, and one for Bible. He also has to do a handwriting sheet, which varies from day to day; sometimes it’s copying his weekly memory verse, sometimes it’s spelling words 5x each, sometimes it’s sentences…whatever it is, it almost always fills up one handwriting sheet which is what I aim for. Usually this all takes him 1/2 hour to 1 hour. He has to be finished by lunchtime. If he’s not, then any leftover work is saved for after his nap/rest time, and it cuts into his afternoon free/play time. He’s usually finished by lunchtime with no problems; in fact, on many days, he finishes early enough to go play outside for half an hour before lunch.
(For Des: once G goes back to the table to do his seatwork, I spend a little while reading with Des on the loveseat. He loves it and is usually more than ready for the one-on-on attention at that point.)

After lunch, it’s quiet time from 1:00-3:30 while Des sleeps (and I have time to myself). Actually, once Des is in bed and G finishes lunch, I sometimes take a few minutes to read out loud to G from a more advanced chapter book…I’m aiming to do this daily. But by 1:00, G has to go lay in his bed and rest; he can either read or take a nap (he still naps on many days), but regardless, he has to stay quiet for the duration until 3:30. This Mama loves her chunk of quiet time during the days, and it’s been enforced here since G was just a little baby.

The only requirement for the rest of G’s day is that he reads independently from a book I approve of (i.e., not comics or silly things) for at least a 30-minute block. This is usually done during the aforementioned quiet time, but if not, then it’s done afterward.

Once Des is up at 3:30, quiet time is over (for sure! haha), they have a snack, and G is free for the rest of the day assuming all his seatwork got done, and assuming there are no chores for him to do—if there is seatwork or chores left after quiet time, then it gets done immediately after his snack. For instance, on days I’ve done laundry, G has to fold it all during the afternoon, but he gets it done quickly now that he’s learned that if he doesn’t, it cuts into his free time.

For G’s free time, usually he goes outside, but some days he stays in and draws, writes, or watches TV. If he watches TV, I let him watch whatever he wants, as long as it is young-kid-friendly (none of the Nick/Disney tweener shows are allowed, for example). Of course, he has to get his TV-watching in before Glenn Beck comes on at 4:00, because that is my TV time! I do make sure that on any day it’s not raining, he gets at least a half hour outside, even if he doesn’t really want to go out, because he needs the sunlight & exercise. Usually Philip is finished with his work by late afternoon, and he spends time outside with both G and Des, so that works out great.

Our schedule on Fridays is lighter:
There are no lessons on Fridays.
After breakfast, we do the usual opening activities, and then I give him his tests. First Math, then Phonics/Spelling. He also has to recite his memory verse for the week, plus all the other verses he’s learned already. All of this takes maybe up to 1/2 hour, but usually much less. Then he has easy review worksheets to do for Math & Phonics/Language, while I grade his tests. If he makes A’s on everything, he gets to go out with Daddy that evening or on Saturday morning and choose any sweet treat he wants at the store (usually an ice cream cone). This is a great incentive; he takes it very seriously and tries to make A’s every week—so far he’s only made 2 B’s and the rest have been A’s.

So as I said, we don’t do any lessons on Fridays, just tests and then he has three review worksheets. If he is going to do any structured art, this is the day we do it. The rest of the day goes the same as Monday-Thursday, just with a lot more free time since we only spend an hour max on schoolwork for Fridays.

On days where I have to be somewhere, or for whatever reason am not able to devote the usual time to lessons, I’m able to amend the day by jumping in and doing just the Math and Phonics lessons, and I can leave him to do the corresponding worksheets while I go get ready. These are days in which I choose to get the core subjects done, and the rest can be skipped. And if there is something going on where I don’t have time to devote to even those two core lessons on a particular morning, I’ll either skip it and try to get the lessons in during the afternoon after quiet time, or I’ll skip it altogether and catch up the next day by doubling up on lessons. Sometimes, I just skip a day and then make up the missed lessons by adding them after Friday’s tests, or, as we did a couple of weeks ago (due to my Granny’s funeral), I catch him up on Saturday (horror! Or so G said. lol!). Either way, it always gets done, and it’s not that hard to make sure that it does get done at some point, so as to keep us on the strict M-F schedule (now you see why I have issues with that).

He is not officially doing any other subjects this year. I felt slightly unsure about how to go about official homeschooling last summer, so I decided to just focus on the basic, core subjects this year for 1st grade. I wanted to feel my way through a year before adding other subjects.

With all that said, I do “unofficially” make sure he gets some science every week via his magazines and books. The same goes with history, either via books or his Bible lessons; also, sometimes his official readers have some history, or he gets it via studying whatever holiday is going on that month (I always add in a little lesson during weeks where there is a holiday. Sometimes we check out related books at the library, too).

For art, I will occasionally go through a huge art book that I have, letting him pick the paintings that catch his eye and we talk about them. I teach him some basic concepts (e.g., the difference between portraits, landscapes, and still life). Occasionally, I’ll give him an art assignment based on a concept we learn together, but nothing regular enough to consider it an official subject this year.

For music, we are waiting anxiously to get our piano from my parents. They are giving me their piano; we just have to get it moved from there to here. Once we have that, I’ll start giving him lessons. We’re both looking forward to that. In the meantime, he already listens to tons of good music—the kid has excellent musical tastes (need I mention that there is NO “kiddie” music in this house? Ugh).

Next year we’ll officially add science and history/social studies. It will likely be science one day a week and history two days a week; it will probably add a half hour of teaching time to my 1-1.5 hours per day. So I don’t expect to ever spend more than 2 hours per day on teaching, and most days I won’t even spend that long.

So in a nutshell, HSing is not a huge, all-consuming commitment, like many (most?) non-HSers erroneously think it is. I honestly probably spend the same amount of time teaching him each day as a public-school mom spends getting her kid(s) ready for school, fixing lunches, shuttling them to and from school, and working through homework (the left-over work that PS teachers don’t manage to get done in 6+ hours per day—not so much their fault, but the fault of the typical beaurocracy and heavy focus on social engineering that bog down the typical PS-system). And you know what? He’s learning, and he’s learning well. Truthfully, I believe he’s actually learning better than he would anywhere else, which is why I believe so much in HSing.

So with HSing, I’m able to get my “duty” done all at once in the morning, and by lunchtime, we’re both free to do as we please with the rest of the day. This is an amazing freedom for both of us! And all this doesn’t even touch on issues like not having to get up early (we get up between 8:00 and 8:30 each day), no one having to “get ready” beyond face-washing, teeth-brushing, and getting dressed, and not having to spend money on school clothes. G is able to have a very small wardrobe, which saves lots of money. I also don’t have to be sure G is in bed early since he doesn’t have to get up early. His bedtime is 8:30 each night, right after Des is in bed at 8:15. And I stay up as late as I feel like staying up, since I don’t have to be up early. I do spend around 10 minutes, on average, each night looking over his lessons for the next day, and making sure I have any special materials ready.

There you go. A day in our life. Plus a few good reasons to consider homeschooling your child(ren)!

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Do you hear the Patriots’ voices, Mr. Narcissist-in-chief?!? Are you listening?!?
More to come in November–we will be taking back our Republic! Can you tell I am thrilled tonight? This is the answer to many prayers for the rescue of our country! If you are not informed and active in politics…wake up and get yourself informed before we lose everything to the marxist progressive movement. C’mon, even MASSACHUSETTS is wising up!

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The Homeschool Classroom

I’ve never been to this site before today, but it looks like a wonderful resource for HS, and I’ve added it to my reader. If you homeschool, be sure to register for the giveaway.

Have a great 2010, and I promise to be back soon with some pics from OUR homeschool classroom! Which we both have enjoyed greatly this year. I’m thankful for our new home every day, and for the opportunity to teach my son.

I can hardly believe my little G is now halfway through FIRST GRADE. How did that happen? And his little brother will be starting pre-K (homeschool, of course) later this year; mind you, it will be very basic stuff like beginning writing, letter sounds, basic numbers, etc. I can’t wait—but then again, I can. I’m enjoying every moment of every stage with my boys right now, because it’s become blatantly apparent to me that they are both growing up so very quickly. Motherhood is a bittersweet journey.

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