Sunday, March 22, 2009

Ostara Egg Hunt Video

I just wanted to share a video of my baby-girl hunting eggs yesterday on Ostara. It doesn't really have anything to do with homeschooling, but I do talk a little bit about a future unit we are going to do. :-)

In addition to the egg hunt, we had a nice little ritual walk in the woods behind our house. Ostara was very nice and peaceful for us. I'm sure we will always remember the spring equinox in 2009! :-)



I hope everyone had a happy, blessed Ostara!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Our 1st Day of Homeschooling

Well, it finally came...our first day of homeschooling. And I must say that it was absolutely amazing!! The entire process went incredibly smooth, and it was joyful for both me and Ariana. Although I was a bit nervous about homeschooling initially, I received a pleasant surprise when I realized how natural teaching my daughter truly is. It's like second nature and gives me such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. I'm so grateful that I get to share the gift of knowledge with my precious baby. There's not another feeling in the world like it!

But the pinnacle moment came for me today when Ariana learned how to write a cursive "A". You see, Ariana was regretting for me to teach cursive to her. Her second grade class began learning cursive a couple of weeks before I withdrew her from school and she truly hated it. She couldn't get the hang of it, and thus, dreaded learning it everyday. So when I mentioned that I would be teaching cursive to her in our home education, she cried and threw a fit. That girl did not want to learn cursive in the least!

But today, I taught Ariana how to write an "A" in a way that was fun and that she could understand, and she wrote it perfectly the first time! (And every time after that, as a matter of fact. ) After her first successful cursive attempt she loved it so much that she practiced for nearly a half hour! She did not want to stop writing her "A's". ~lol~ I actually had to make her move on to something else. It was so beautiful and made me feel so good. I taught my baby-girl how to write a cursive "A". Wow!!!

Another cute little story about today is, a couple of hours after our homeschooling was finished, Ariana wanted to homeschool again....yes, in the same day! She told me that homeschooling was so much fun that she couldn't wait to do it again, and begged me to teach her some more. Isn't that amazing?!? A child that begs to learn!

I'm so pleased with homeschooling so far. (Although I am dead tired as I write this. ~lol~ Homeschooling is rather exhausting, but so totally worth it.) :-) Until next time....

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

About My Family



Just to get to know me on a more personal level, I would like to give an introduction about me and my family to people who might stumble upon my blog.

Well to start, my family and I reside in Indiana USA. My husband and I have been married for over 9 years. I am disabled with a spinal condition called scoliosis and receive SSI. Jim is a computer support tech for a large company and works from home. Ariana is 8 years old and is currently in 2nd grade.

Spiritually, we are Pagan. I consider myself to be Celtic Witch but I also incorporate shamanism in my path. In addition to Witchcraft I am also a medium, so the Spirit World is very important to me. My husband considers himself a Druid and a Wizard, but he also studies many metaphysical paths including, but not limited to, Kabbalah and Ceremonial. (We have both been Pagan for over 10 years....we were Pagan when we met.) My husband and I allow Ariana to make her own religious choice but so far she chooses to be Pagan like us. (More specifically a Witch.) Also energy and herbal healing is very important to our overall path.

As a family, we have many hobbies and interests the most important being ghost hunting. Jim and I are currently forming a spirit investigation group called Southern Indiana Spirit Research. (In a nutshell we are going to offer free investigations to local homes and businesses.) But since Ariana is interested in ghost hunting as well and wants to feel like she part of the group, she came up with the idea to create a sub-group called the Juniorr Soul Seekers which quite simply is going to be a play-group for children such as herself that come from ghost hunting homes. We truly hope that our group will be successful and help many people with their paranormal problems.

Individually, we have many different interests and hobbies. I greatly enjoy video editing, graphic/web design and creating art (Although I'm not too good at the latter. ~lol~) I am also very intrigued with EVP and ITC, as well as psychic development. Jim is into video games, anything to do with computers and music....he has been a guitarist for over 20 years. Ariana, like any other 8 year old girl, absolutely LOVES Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. She also enjoys dancing, singing, reading and playing with Little Pet Shops toys.

Well, I hope this post will enable you to understand our family life a little bit more. Actually, I didn't even begin to scratch the surface of all of our hobbies and interests, but this post was becoming too long and I didn't want to bore you more than I already have! ~lol~ Thank you for taking the time to read this.....


About This Blog...

Well for my first post, , I guess it would be quite fitting to explain what my blog is all about. I'm sure it's quite obvious what the theme of this blog is going too be when one looks at the title and links, but I wanted to explain the deeper meaning.

I suppose the best place to start is by saying that my family and I are extremely new to homeschooling. (As a matter of fact, my husband and I only withdrew our daughter from public school this past Monday; that's how new we truly are.) So, first and foremost this blog is going to chronicle the journey of a 'brand new' homeschooling family. I want to record all of our experiences from our ups and downs, to our joys and sorrows. Homeschooling is a learning process for everyone involved, and I want to be able to look back and see how much we grew in the process.

Secondly, it is my hope that this blog will be of help to other homeschooling parents-Pagan or not. As I grow and learn in the homeschooling experience, I will share my acquired knowledge throughout this blog. And maybe, just maybe, my words will help some other parent new to homeschooling someday. :-)

But for now, I must start my own journey. Let the journey begin......